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On July 6th this year the annual "football match" was played but this year with a twist! No, not a twisted ankle - thank goodness! But it was ran as a 5-a-side football tournament! From looking at the players responses, I believe this seems to have been a popular choice too, and so may make another appearances next year. In keeping with the theme of this event, here comes the match report! 

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Welcome to the beautiful home of Slough FC - Arbour Park! Capacity 700, match day attendance: 2 (Tom's partner and his beautiful 2 month old son)! The 4 teams entered the sacred turf, albeit a plastic freshly laid 3G pitch! Which just for clarity doesn't improve your phones signal, or cause your internet connectivity to be any better (you know who you are!) 🤣. Each team hungry for action and brimmed to bursting point with top quality nutrition (mainly Haribos) and at the peak of their physical fitness - Trev most certainly did not suspect a pulled hamstring resulting from his first poorly placed shot on goal during the warm up! 😮.

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After the detailed briefing and tournament rules, the teams took their places on the pitch. Arranged over two pitches, each team would see the whites of their opponents eyes twice (each team played each other twice). Despite the, what felt like tropical weather conditions, the players battled on through the heat playing some incredibly attractive football, with certain players tipped to be joining the top flight leagues later in the season after such performances! There were bone crunching tackles, bursts of pace down the wings and skillful masterpieces on show regularly! In the blink of an eye, although it didn't seem like this on the day, each team had played their 6 games, with the initial two rounds finishing as follows:

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Although some might say there was a clear favourite from looking at the table, for impartiality purposes, the author of this report won't say that, mainly as he was part of the "favourite" team too! So instead he will write that it was all to play for in the 3rd place playoff and final games!

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The Red and Black teams added to the already electric atmosphere at Arbour Park by watching the 3rd place match between the White and Blue teams on Pitch 2! The match was officiated by the honorable and Mr. Roman Conrad who kept all the players in toe throughout this very tense and face-paced match. With some amazing runs of play, carefully picked out passes and some incredible goalkeeping performances! The Blue team were victorious! Congratulations to Blue team on a very impressive performance and commiserations to the white team, but a very well played match nonetheless! 

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After a short break, the 1st and 2nd placed teams took to pitch 2 to get the final underway. Spurred on by the blue and white teams, the awesome Kasey Connell took on the task of keeping these athletes in check throughout this intense, bragging-rights-fuelled match! The game was very equal with both teams having brilliant spells of play and possession! Until a breakthrough in the form of an own goal from the black team, meaning the red team continued their impressive unbeaten streak! Less than 2 minutes later, the same black team player who unfortunately scored the own goal, went on a revenge-fuelled mission to even the scores, doing so with an awesome long-range strike, leveling the scores at 1-1.

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Although many attempts on both team's goals were made, the black team did have more chances, and looked like they would be the claiming the trophy! Both teams defended well though, meaning at the end of match the score was tied at 1 all! 

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Everyone's favourite part then came next... penalties!

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The black and red teams individually stepped up to the spot taking varying styles of penalties most resulting in saved chances from two fine goalkeeping performances from Dan Ford and Jimmy Rushworth. Both threw themselves all over their goals leaping, diving and stretching to make a save for most of the shots! Fine performances from all penalty takers and keepers alike - well done all! 

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There could be only one winner at the end of this gruelling shootout, and in this instance the black team were victorious! Huge congratulations to the black team for a commanding and impressive victory in the final game, and certainly are worthy winners of this years tournament! 

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If you'd like to see more pictures and videos from the days action, please head over to our Flickr account (here).

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A big thanks to all who took part in the day, you were all brilliant and we had a real laugh from start to finish! We hope to see you all, and others, at next year's sporting events 😁.