Leicester Tournament – Some of our best football ever?

Congratulations Sharks on some excellent football yesterday! EVERY player contributed to our success yesterday and it was a fine example of how well we can play as a team.

The results were a bit odd – each team finished with a 2-2 record:

Sharks beat Voodoo twice
Voodoo beat Eagles twice
Eagles beat Sharks twice

I guess it just goes to show how evenly matched we all are, which leads to some great games of football.

We took a strong team, with a nice mix of Sharks and Makos players. It would have been nice to take two teams, but unfortunately there were a number of Makos who could not make the trip. What it did mean was that those Makos who did travel got to play in some very good games and every single one of them contributed positively to our performance.

So well done Billy, Luke, Toby, Matt and JP. Some great tackling by Billy, nice clock-eating runs by Luke (and yes a TD!), tight coverage by Toby and Matt (and a fantastic pick Matt) and some clutch catches from JP.

As for the Sharks, some very good D headed up by Dave and Dayle, a nice rotation on O in terms of receivers – with SEVEN different players scoring touchdowns – and a nice arm and decision-making from our QB, Neil.

The highlight for me, was our 2nd game of the day and 1st against the Voodoo. The Voodoo had just come off a strong victory against the Eagles, who we had lost against, so we knew it would be a difficult match.

It didn’t start out well for us, as former Sharks QB, Nick Watson aired it out with his trade mark bombs to take a lead almost immediately. But we fought back and lead kept changing hands like a basketball match! It was my best game of the day with 1 TD and 2 PATs – all off the Touchdown play, which seemed to work all day against the Voodoo. Pete also chipped in with 2 TDs, with one a piece from Lambo and Ben.

We were on track for a heartbreaking loss after the Voodoo scored with slightly less than a minute left. But with the team fired up, we managed to march down the field. With just 8 seconds left on the clock, Neil heaved the ball into the endzone and Pete made a spectacular grab for the game tying TD. The successful PAT sealed what ranks as one of the all time best Shark victories. Final score 34-33.

Here are the other results and stats:

Sharks 7 – 18 Eagles

Passing – Neil Henderson 1 TD, 1INT
Receiving – Pete Steel 1 TD, 1 PAT
Defense – Matt Williams 1 SACK

Sharks 34 – 33 Voodoo

Passing – Neil Henderson 5 TD
Receving –
Pete Steel 2 TD, 1 PAT
Gary Robinson 1 TD, 2 PAT
James Lambert 1 TD, 1 PAT
Ben Pulleyblank 1 TD

Sharks 6 – 7 Eagles

Passing – Neil Henderson 1 TD
Receiving – Luke Nash 1 TD
Defense – Matt Williams 1 INT

Sharks 28 – 14 Voodoo

Passing – Neil Henderson 4 TD
Receiving –
Dayle Kirby 2 TD, 2 PAT
Ben Pulleyblank 1 TD, 1 PAT
Matt Williams 1 TD, 1 PAT
Defense –
Dayle Kirby 1 INT
Matt Williams 1 INT

Well done all, a great tournament. Add your own comments below – what was your highlight?

Earlier in the day, Dave and Dayle held a Team England trial session. This involved a series of drills, including sprints, shuttles, receiving and back peddling. Chichester players who participated: Luke Nash, Lambo, Matt Williams, Ben Pulleyblank and Gary Robinson.

Team England Head Coach Dave Lee will be in touch this week with feedback and his decisions. There will be another opportunity to be assessed at the Hastings event on Sunday should anyone else like to be considered.

Next up: Hastings on Sunday. This is a friendly exhibition event, but we’d like to take a least one team down, two if the Makos have a QB and enough players free. I’ll post details up here in the next couple of days.

9 thoughts on “Leicester Tournament – Some of our best football ever?

  • Mike the Ninja

    Well done guys sounds you all played extremely well and got some good results.
    Great to read about the success, will be at training on wednesday and i am going to Hastings sunday.
    Well done guys!!!

  • Anonymous

    Well done to everyone! I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday. Players on both sides of the ball were outstanding, and we showed real resilience in fighting back to win against the Voodoo – TWICE! My highlight was Pete’s TD catch also… although Neil’s celebratory jig was pretty special too!

    Looking forward to training on Wednesday, and I will try to bring along those newcomers that I’ve been talking about.

    Dayle

  • Shaun Parker

    i’ll be there on wednesday for training and sunday for hastings. I will prob go direct to hastings as it cuts a lot of time of the journey. The Doc says my thumbs healing nice… Said i can do some stuff but strap it up well. Does anyone know of good sport tape?

  • Anonymous

    yeah bears superbowl season 1985 on vhs.hahahaha.and before anyone mentions the last superbowl dont even think about it or its laps.sean11

  • Anonymous

    Hi all first up well done to everyone for what looks and sounds like a good tournament, sorry i couldn’t make it. As for sunday if all else fails I ‘ll play QB, so what are the numbers like and travel arrangements?
    Is wednesday still on this week too?

    By the way can we have a demo of the “jig” that our resident Scotsman did on sunday?

    Again well done to all, here’s to a few more victories on sunday.

    Last thing-Gary do we do what the current league standings are-as the historical looking front page of Senior flag is doing my head in?

    J
    #16

  • Shark 34

    Know what you mean about the ESFL homepage, its ridiculous. I think I have all the results so far, so once i get a chance this week I’ll try to put a table together – along with the individual stats.

    Will post shortly about Weds/Sunday

  • Shark 34

    The tournie will be official providing at four teams participate.

    So far, we have Sharks, Makos, Derby, plus possibles from Voodoo, Mayhem and a french team that have contacted me.

    Providing at least one of those possibles turns up, the tournie will be official.

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