Tuesday 16th May 2023 marked a historic day for Chesterton House Financial Planning as we picked up our first trophy as winners of the Leicester CII 5-a-side football tournament.
A squad made up of Sam Harrington, Dan Walker, Jack Wood, Callum Donoghue, Sam Adams, Dylan Jones and Joe Fawcett took to the Astro turf pitches of Goals in Leicester with a dream of picking up silverware.
The first game of the tournament saw us face Anthony James, a local insurance company. It was a slow start by CH as we got to grips with playing together for the first time, however as confidence grew, so did the goals, and by half time we were comfortably 4-0 up. A shaky start to the 2nd half saw Jack Wood pull off a great save from a penalty kick before we wrapped the game up with a few more goals to register our first win of the tournament.
We went into the 2nd game full of belief, and the goals continued flowing. Some great moves and passages of play saw us score 9 goals in 24 minutes.
With confirmation of winning the group secured, we were tasked with playing the runners up of Group A in the semi-finals. It was a cagey start to the game and our opponents were forced into a few early changes due to injuries. This went to our advantage, and we managed to go ahead thanks to a neat finish from Sam H. WKM evened things up with just under half of the game left to play before Dylan and Sam A scored a couple of late goals to win the game and see us through to our first final.
The final saw us face Anthony James’ A team. It was an evenly matched game with very few clear-cut chances. We rattled the woodwork a couple of times and Callum pulled off some great saves to keep us in the game. With only a few minutes of the game remaining Anthony James broke free and scored a great goal to put themselves 1-0 ahead. It looked like the end of the road for CH, after a great debut tournament, we were flat out on our feet with very little energy left to give. With only 10 seconds of the game remaining, we pushed for a late equaliser, the ball ricocheted around the edge of Anthony James’ penalty area before Dan Walker smashed the ball home with pretty much the last kick of the game. It was Roy of the Rovers stuff for CH who salvaged a well-earned draw to take the final to a penalty shootout.
The penalty shootout, which would be won on a best of 3 basis, was commenced by Anthony James who took the first kick. Diving to his left and saving the ball with his leg, a magnificent stop from Callum saw Anthony James miss the first penalty. Advantage CH. We followed this up with a calm, well taken penalty from Dan before Anthony James made it 1-1. Joe then slotted his penalty home to give us a 2-1 advantage before Anthony James scored again to make it 2-2. CH were one penalty kick away from glory and up stepped Sam H (otherwise known as ‘Mr Chesterton’) to seal the silverware. It was written in the stars and Sam H calmly put the ball into the corner of goal, despite the keeper getting his fingertips to it. Jubilant scenes followed before we were then presented with our winning trophy in the clubhouse.
A big thanks to the CII for putting on a great tournament which we thoroughly enjoyed, and we’ll look forward to returning next year to begin our title defence.
Details of the open top bus parade through Loughborough are to be confirmed.
Players of the tournament: Dan Walker & Joe Fawcett
A full breakdown of the scorelines and goal scorers can be found below:
Group Stage
1) CHFP 7-1 Anthony James B
Scorers: Sam H 1, Jack W 2, Callum 2, Joe F 1, Sam A 1
Jack W saved a penalty
2) CHFP 9-3 Rowleys
Scorers: Sam H 3, Joe F 2, Callum 2, Dan W 2
Semi-Final
3) CHFP 3-1 WKM
Scorers: Sam H 1, Dylan 1, Sam A 1
Final
4) CHFP 1-1 Anthony James A - CHFP won 3-2 on penalties
Scorers: Dan W
Penalty Scorers: Dan W, Joe F & Sam H
Callum saved Penalty for CH