FOOTBALL: Under 9s Tigers win tournament on sudden-death penalties

Victory for Rugby Town in Central Ajax six-a-side
Rugby Town Tigers Under 9s with their trophiesRugby Town Tigers Under 9s with their trophies
Rugby Town Tigers Under 9s with their trophies

Rugby Town U9s Tigers

The Tigers travelled to Warwick on Saturday to play in an extremely well run six-a-side festival at Central Ajax.

Always eager to see the groups on arrival and it looked like Tigers drawn the tougher Under 9s group.

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First up was their friends at Leamington Brakes but the lads started brightly with quick passing and goals from Henry Appiah.

In the second game the Tigers faced a strong Stratford Town team. Again the boys were really up for it and goals came from from Hudson and Bo.

They then played hosts and earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory with a penalty in the last minute slotted home by Toby Johnson.

Welford were swept aside with four goals from Hudson Petkovic and a back heel from Bo.

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Rugby Town’s toughest group game followed against Kingshurst Sporting from Birmingham.

Chances came and went for both teams until Hudson ran down the right and smashed one in.

The lads had qualified for the semis with five wins out of five.

James as ever was superb in goal with Toby and Oli H in commanding form at the back, passing out well.

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Charlie, Henry and Kaydon were strong in the middle and were passing the ball well too, Hudson was terrorising defences and Bo a constant menace. Unlike recent weeks where the lads ran out of steam, Tigers had two subs and the team were fresh for the semi-final.

There they faced Warwick Juniors, a lovely passing side who in all honesty had the better of the game, but an unbelievable one-on-one save from James kept Tigers in it before with the last kick of the game when Hudson rifled in an unstoppable shot from the right.

Into the final saw Tigers’ against main rivals all season Finbarrs.

It was an end to end game with both teams having chances and good saves coming from both keepers, but ultimately no one could find a breakthrough and it was onto the dreaded penalties.

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Five each Tigers up first. Toby, Hudson and James all slotted but with both teams missing a couple it was onto sudden death.

Toby scored, Finbarrs scored, Hudson scored, Finbarrs scored, James scored and Finbarrs missed - que the celebrations after firstly making sure the other team are ok and shaking hands.

A great day for the lads not conceding all day in open play against quality opposition.

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