After a long day on Saturday, there were some tired limbs going into Sunday. There were more referees but still not quite enough.
I found myself with the under 9’s, there were 3 pitches with 8 teams in a group and 4 refs. Our rotation scheme didn’t work but at least we had some breaks.
Teams came from far and wide, Ipswich and Essex. It was good to see North Norfolk represented with Aylsham and Bacton, back after a long absence. The sloping pitches caused problems with teams playing one way. There were other problems as well. One team were accused of fielding over age players, another player had his shorts pulled down by another team and one team were guilty of poor behaviour resulting in me showing my first ever blue card.
Back to the football and there were some good sides. Ipswich looked strong as did Rangers and Loddon. Bohemians struggled as did Bacton. Aylsham were the favourites looking very impressive. It was good to see Caister back in their traditional orange and black.
I had to leave after the quarter finals. There was a delay to the start of these. For only the 2nd time in the tournament two teams finished level in the league. There had to be a decider, this time a penalty shoot out.
The quarter finals were tight. In my match Stanway lost by the only goal against Ipswich. A very close game this as the Essex side more than matched their opponents. Loddon edged out Ormesby in a tie that went to extra time. Aylsham put out Rangers. The other result is missing.
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