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The Youth Point tournament had a reputation for bringing the best youth teams from the Leeds area together to compete. However, as the tournament organisers said the quality “had never been so good”. As the Meanwood players entered Goals, they were shocked as they realised that the tournament was going to be much harder than they anticipated. Last time, Meanwood had cruised through winning their first two matched 7-0 and 5-0 until they faced the eventual winners City Boys and lost 1-0 in the semi-finals. Gafa was Meanwood’s top scorer in that tournament bagging in 7 goals, where as the rest of the team had contributed to the other 5 goals that Meanwood scored. However, a repeat performance seemed unlikely as the teams were much better and there were going to be no easy matches.
Meanwood’s team had been hit through injury for this tournament and they missing key players such as Aydan Fertug and Richard Bissitt. This meant that Woody had to fulfil the position as goalkeeper and that Sam Sawiuk was brought in to give the team some steel. Alex Jones was forced to pull out due to “illness”, which meant that Meanwood were the only team without a substitute, thus seemed vulnerable to fatigue. Meanwood needed a manager over 21 and Gafa shocked everyone as he appointed none other than Mr Turpin to be it. The injured Aydan Fertug also became assistant manager. 1st Match vs. Armley Squash Club FC Meanwood had the pleasure in participating in the tournaments opening match, thus had a reasonably sized crowd watching them. The match started comfortably enough with Sam Sawiuk opening the scoring. However, things turned sour when Armley managed to grab a shock equaliser with their only chance of the game. Fortunately, things went back to normal as Meanwood overran their opponents with a Mckieth double and a James Milner strike to make the final score 4-1. It was relatively easy for Meanwood as they breezed through their first test. Following Meanwood’s match, City Boys were on next. They hammered their opponents who couldn’t decide on a name, 7-0. It finally dawned on Gafa that City Boys were the team that knocked Meanwood out of the semi-finals last time and he informed the rest of the team. Following, City Boys match, YP United Seniors A faced YPC, YP United Seniors A dominated this match and looked to be a serious threat. After the first three games, the group looked to be a contest between City Boys, YP United Seniors A and Meanwood…unfortunately only 2 could go through and this meant that Meanwood’s next two games were vitally important. 2nd Match vs. City Boys OK now for the big one. City Boys took the lead mid-way through the match after their star striker slotted home. It was a fairly even contest but City’s goal inspired Meanwood to step up a gear. Meanwood tried and tried but a breakthrough seemed unlikely…until with less than 30 seconds remaining Gafa collected the ball in his own half, dribbled round two players and took a thunderous shot from the half way line that sailed into the far top corner of the net. With 10 seconds remaining, Meanwood then had a goal disallowed when Gafa’s pass trickled in the net. However, Anthony Mckieth was adjudged to have entered the area. Overall, a strong performance from Meanwood and a crucial point. 3rd Match vs. YP United Seniors A A draw against City Boys practically meant that Meanwood needed a win against YP United Seniors A. This was Meanwood’s second match in a row, thus they were knackered and YP United Seniors A had received a break before facing Meanwood. However, Meanwood still had momentum and Gafa received the ball from kick off and decided to go on a run, he went past the whole YP United Seniors team before he smashed the ball home to beat Meanwood’s ex keeper Bradley. This won over Gafa’s critics such as Aron Wainwright who was watching. Gafa was now a man on a mission. After Gafa’s early goal, Meanwood defended for the entire match and kept a clean sheet with some fine saves from Woody to win 1-0. Meanwood now looked destined to qualify for the semi-finals. A few matches following this, YP United Seniors A played City Boys and after an inspired performance from ex- Meanwood players Brisco (played 20 mins for Meanwood once) and Bradley, YP got a shock victory, which meant that last seasons winners looked destined to be heading out. 4th Match vs. YPC Brisco temporally swapped teams to face Meanwood in order to try and strengthen YP’s position in the group. However, Meanwood were having none of it and scored early on through Gafa as he megged the keeper, a bit of a fortunate goal but they all count. Brisco was starting to cause problems for Meanwood and was out tricking them and he eventually managed to score with less than one minute to go. This meant that it was crisis time for Meanwood as they were relying on a win to qualify. However, Gafa scored with the last kick of the match to steal all the points for Meanwood. Gafa seemed to be scoring crucial goals at crucial times and combined with good performances from everybody else such as Woody in net, Meanwood looked destined to go far. 5th Match vs. Here Just For Fun This team was really, really, really good and they were in it to win it, just kidding. Meanwood needed to lose less than 2-0 to go through and they were facing a team that hadn’t won a single game. Meanwood cruised through this match and won 3-0 with goals coming from Gafa, Mckieth and Milner. Meanwood weren’t even trying. Fair play to “Here For The Fun Of It”, they were friendly people and if there was a sportsmanship award they would have won it. Semi-Final vs. YP United Seniors B Meanwood had already faced the other YP United Seniors team and now they had to face YP United Seniors B. Meanwood were on form and Milner scored a nice goal early on to make it 1-0. However, YP United Seniors B’s star striker managed to trick his way through the Meanwood defence and slotted home to make it 1-1. Disaster for Meanwood. There were less than 40 seconds left and the match seemed to be heading for extra time. However, Gafa was a man on a mission and he “danced” his way past three players before firing home to make the score 2-1 and put Meanwood into the final. Joy all round for Meanwood. Final vs. Holbeck Meanwood were completely knackered and had not received a long break. Holbeck were fortunate enough to have lots of subs, thus weren’t tired. You can see the outcome already. The match started badly for Meanwood, as Holbeck’s Italian superstar, Hardi scored to put them 1-0 up. However, Gafa replied immediately after he received the ball from the centre and went round 2 players before firing into the top corner of the net from distance to score another sensational goal. However, Holbeck had more energy and Hardi scored again to make it 2-1. Hardi scored once more to get his hattrick and that was that. Meanwood had lost in the final. So Meanwood lost in the final. They shouldn’t be too downbeat as they played some good football and deserved their runners up trophy. Meanwood are playing well and they won’t look back from this tournament and will be stronger as a result of it. It is fair to say they would of have a far greater chance of winning if they were not missing two key players, as although the stand in players (Sawiuk, and Woody playing out of position in goal) excelled in their performances, the team was drained by fatigue and had run out of steam by the last match which substitutes could well have cured. Praise must also go to Meanwood’s management duo of Aydan Fertug and Stuart Turpin who organised the team well. Well played Meanwood!. 
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