Westfield Youth FC

‘Field’s trip to Sweden to play in the Gothia World Youth Cup was a great success, but left everyone wondering what might have been, had tiredness and injury not caught them up on the fourth day.
They started the competition in superb form winning all their group matches with a goal tally of 25 for and none against, in good all-round team displays there were particularly good performances in these stages from Liam Pestle and Keith Bradbury. The winners and runners up of the 37 groups of either 4/5 teams then Qualified for the section `A’ final knockout stages with some of the group second places playing off to take the competition down to 64 teams.
‘Field’s last 64 match was against a very tough German side FV Wannsee Berlin, it was a great match only marred by an injury to the influential Kerry Watts that was a massive blow and ruled him out of the rest of the tournament, ‘Field came through 2-0 with goals from Tom Davis and Daniel Locke securing a fine win.
Their next match was against Swedish Div 1 professional team Qviding FIF again ‘Field were in great form but some dubious decisions ruled out two ‘Field early goals before one of the Swedes pacey forward ran clear to open the scoring. The team dug really deep and pressed hard to draw level but struggled to make the breakthrough against a well drilled side until a back-pass was picked up near the end, the resulting free kick was rolled to Sam Black who smashed the ball home for the equaliser. Shortly afterwards a flowing move down the right resulted in a ball being drilled across the face of the goal for Locke to dispatch it at the far post and give ‘Field a well deserved lead. The then referee played a full 10 mins of extra time keeper Billy Inwood making a terrific save to preserve the narrow lead before Black settled the game and put ‘Field into the last 16, the whistle going immediately after the goal.
The third full game of the day proved a game to far as ‘Field went down 0-3 to a Norwegian Div 2 side SK Viggo.
Even withstanding several players feeling unable to start due to injury or tiredness ‘Field again looked the better side for much of the match with the best chance falling to Mike Tasker who missed a vital chance that he would normally score 99 times out of 100. The game was well into the second half and really in the balance when a useful Norwegian striker broke clear, he appeared to have squandered the chance only for a push in the back from Harry Cooper to result in a clear penalty that was expertly dispatched for the lead. ‘Field gave everything they had in search of an equaliser but unfortunately were unable to draw level and were caught on the break for a second 15 min’s from time. Still it looked as though ‘Field could get something from the match, but a fine save from Pestle’s fierce drive and several close efforts were to no avail, salt being rubbed into the wound late on as a sub swung his boot at a volley and the ball flew home for the final nail in the coffin and an end to ‘Field’s dreams of playing in the huge Ullevi stadium in front of thousands of people.
The Norwegians comfortably won their ¼ final match before going out in a close semi-final to the eventual champions Lintop FC who also knocked out crack Brazilian side Pequeninos Do Jockey.
The final was between Mexican Premier league side Cruz Azul and Lintop FC from Ghana who are the Ghana national u16 team. Lintop FC winning 7-6 on penalties.

Squad: Billy Inwood, Nick Flynn, Stuart Pain, Harry Cooper, Keith Bradbury, Joe Dilena, Mike Tasker, Jerome Smart, Daniel Locke, Sam Black, Kerry Watts, Liam Pestle, Tom Davis, Daniel Towse, Rob Lovesey.      
      
Goalsorers: Locke 7, Black 6, Pestle 5, Watts 2, Bradbury 2, Tasker 2, Lovesey 2, Pain, Smart, Davis, Cooper.