The 5 a side league season finished on 9th May and culminated in the closest finish in the league for many seasons. 2nd to 5th were separated by just 6 points with the league winners having their lead cut from 15 points 4 weeks earlier to just 6 by the final whistle of the final game.
Going into the last night we were in third place and if we won both of our final games against the two teams above us we would have ended the season as runners up. But we didn’t.
We lost 1 - 2 to the second place side (we were denied a blatant penalty...)and then drew 1-1 with the eventual champions meaning that we ended the season in 4th place, just 2 points from runners up spot.
We did however gain revenge two weeks later on ‘Finals Night’. There were 4 cup finals played, two are cup competitions and the other two are consolation shield matches and we somehow won through the knockout stages and found ourselves in two of the finals!
The first was one of the shield finals. We lost that 1-3 and didn’t really deserve to win but we still won the Runners-Up trophies which was our first trophy for years. We sat out the next two finals then in the last match of the season, which was the final of the Knockout Cup (the most prestigious of all as far as the Sittingbourne 5 a Side League is concerned). AND WE ONLY WENT AND WON IT!
We beat the team that pipped us to runners up spot in the league (the blatant penalty blah blah) by a thumping 2 goals to their hopelessly inadequate 1.
‘Old Bordenians, Knockout Cup Winners 2012-2013’ the stadium announcer screamed; or he may have done had there been an announcer and a stadium.
Our second trophy in 30 minutes.
This was largely achieved with the same squad that have plumbed the depths over the last few seasons but with the addition of a new keeper, and in the latter part of the season, Cliff Cork’s son.
For years we have cried out for some younger legs but for some reason Cliff didn’t think to mention that he had a son, a son who, it turned out was quite capable of scoring all 6 goals for us in a thumping 6-2 victory. And to top that, he has a second son, an Old Bordenian who played for one game at the end of the league season and is just as good as his brother. And both want to play next season. Fill yer boots.
This is likely to mean that my boots will not necessarily be hung up despite the acquisition of the splendid tankard that was presented to me at the Dinner.
Common sense says retire now, but an evening emptying the tankard several times says that I am jusht ash good ash the resht .
Keith Shea (OBA Football representative)