As the curtain falls on the old season, we can reflect on another outstanding year's tomfoolery. The highs included our first tournament success (Land Ut Gods 01), whilst the lows included a run of four straight defeats, where we scored 5 goals and conceded 25.
Not championship form.
With Russ turning away from football to concentrate on his singing career, a lot of the team mismanagement fell to resident match tomfooleriser, Pete Myton. Pete also spent more than his fair share of time in nets, so I would like to take this opportunity to formally acknowledge the Prince of Vampire Chic's contribution to all things SBA. Nice one Pete.
And nice one everyone else also. Here for your education, edification and elucidation are the 100% Unofficial scores for the 2001/2002 season, brought to you, live and exclusive, by SBA FC Unofficial (sponsored by Virgin airlines).
Stockport 4-4 SBA FC Rather a breathless start to the season, not helped by the previous evening's alcoholism. Two for Ali, one for Dave and a collector's item Russ Cassidy strike (with his knee). LuG '01 SBA FC 1-1 Stockport SBA FC 2-1 Huddersfield SBA FC 3-0 Hull SBA FC 3-0 Leicester SBA FC 1-0 Derby The SBA's finest hour: after some early setbacks (ankle breakages) a deluge of Orca (inset) goals swept us though to the final, where a lone John McCutch header did the rest. M'Duck '01 SBA FC 0-2 Man Utd SBA FC 0-2 Wolves SBA FC 3-0 Licoln SBA FC 1-3 Peterboro The SBA comprehensively dodged the double in the freezing sleet-washed conditions at Rothley. Woody Hickman followed up POTT at Huddersfield by getting the golden boot here. Millwall 4-2 SBA FC A good performance from the Sky Blues in a tricky away fixture. Set the early pace, but eventually overrun by a fit, well-organised Millwall side. This defeat saw the start of a bit of a bad run... Birmingham 6-0 SBA FC We turned up with no goalie. SBA FC 1-6 Stockport We had a new goalie: he didn't enjoy it much. Leicester 7-2 SBA FC We were actually winning this game for about five minutes. Russ ended up in goal. West Brom 1-6 SBA FC We finally did some damage to someone else's goal difference. All three McKeowns on the scoresheet, along with two from Ali and a classic Banjo goal. Watford 5-3 SBA FC Another frenetic fixture against old rivals Watford: we led twice in the first half, then came back from 3-2 down, threatened to level the scores at four each, then lost. They fed us well afterwards. Chelsea 3-2 SBA FC Got off to a disastrous start against a very young Chelsea side, conceding two early goals. A gruelling comeback left the scores level, with us pushing for a late winner. Then they scored on the break and we lost again. Que sera, sera. LuG '02 SBA FC 0-0 Luton SBA FC 2-1 Doncaster SBA FC 0-0 Middlesboro Report elsewhere on these pages SBA FC 0-1 Birmingham Yikes. A narrow home defeat off the Brummies, but at least we didn't have our cars broken into. Forest 4-2 SBA FC Twice came from behind, then got beat. Went to a good pub afterwards though. Forest tourny SBA FC 2-2 Derby SBA FC 0-1 Doncaster SBA FC 1-2 Forest SBA FC 1-several Norwich Not our best day in the field. All got sunburned as well. SBA FC 5-1 Leicester After two early goals, we let the Foxes back into the game, but finished them off with a goal on the break while they were pushing for an equaliser at 2-1. Memorable for Banjo's inability to score a hat-trick J Tournoi de Solihull SBA FC 0-1 Birmingham SBA FC 1-1 Villa SBA FC 0-1 Villa SBA FC 3-2 Birmingham Controversially awarded the wooden spoon in a tournament which had a mid-day break for the England vs Denmark game (plus libations!) Leicester 7s (in aid of Sport Relief) Two teams entered (SBA "B" and SBA 2nds), both finished bottom of their group without scoring. Thank god for tournament hosts, the Emetic Yetis, who pipped us both to the wooden spoon. We donated our surplus funds on the day to Sport Relief.That's it, apart from WorldNet!!!
How did SBA FC do in the World Cup???
If anyone recalls any matches that I've omitted, drop me a line please. It would be nice if one of the old codgers could do a report of the veteran sevens at Pussay.