Last Friday, our boys’ football team attempted to defend their title in the Galactico Soccer tournament. The tournament featured 16 teams from Belfast and Bangor and the teams were split into groups of 4. We were grouped with Strandtown, Finaghy and Euston Street. The teams played 10 minute matches with the winning team from each group advancing to the 1st place semi-finals, the second place to the 2nd place semi-finals and so on.

The first match was a tight affair against a well organised Finaghy team. The game appeared to be heading for a goalless draw before Jaxx, recovering from being kicked in the stomach, managed to bicycle kick a loose ball in the box into the net. The team held on for a deserved victory.

The second game was against Strandtown. The teams were evenly matched and both sides had their chances. Some terrific work in defence by Kyan managed to shut down any Strandtown attacks and the game finished 0-0.

In the final game of the group, Victoria Park needed to win by four clear goals to top the group, a big ask in a 10 minute match. The boys started quickly and scored an early goal, but with no time to celebrate they grabbed the ball and ran back to the centre spot. They managed to maintain their intensity throughout the game and with goals from Jenson, Luke (2), Jaxon and Ruben they achieved an incredible 5-0 victory to win the group.

The semi-final against Braniel was a close game and both teams had chances to win. Only an incredible double save by Logan in the last seconds of normal time kept them in it. The game went to extra time and Victoria Park were very much on the front foot, but unfortunately just couldn’t find the winner. The game went to penalties and ultimately the boys were denied by some outstanding goalkeeping from the Braniel keeper.

Mr Gullen was incredibly proud of the whole team and was so impressed with the boys who put their hands up to take the penalties in such a high pressure situation. They showed great character and he knows they would do it again if necessary.

He would also like to congratulate Luke, who was named Player of the Tournament by the organisers for the second year running. Thanks to Mr Gullen and Mr Myles, as always, for their hard work with the boys all year.

Victoria Park – Logan, Kyan, Lucas, Riley, Ahmed, Jaxx, Ruben, Jaxon, Luke, Jenson (c)