Penalties! Why is it always penalties?

Toy News recently held a five-a-side football tournament to raise money for the Toy Trust – a charity that raises money for disabled and disadvantaged children – and Thumbs Up sent a team to take part.

After winning four out of five of their group stage games, Thumbs Up went through to the quarter-finals, but a draw forced every footballer’s nightmare scenario – a penalty shootout decider. Sadly, luck wasn’t with the Thumbs Up team and they lost the shootout, taking them out of the tournament.

A shaky start against the team from Firebox led to Thumbs Up conceding a couple of goals too many in their very first game, but by the second game, they’d got used to the way the ball moved on the artificial pitch surface and it all came together, resulting in a decisive victory.

Powering through their next game by a hugely convincing margin that saw some solid defence from Mitesh Patel, the boots of Vimal Pau and Niraj Patel sent the ball to the back of the net time after time to take Thumbs Up to its next game against one of the championship favourites, Hasbro.

Hasbro proved to be worthy opponents, and this was a hard fought match, but Thumbs Up had really got it together by this point, letting their strikers take turns on and off the pitch in order to keep up a pounding pace. Thumbs Up took the lead, then Hasbro equalised, then Thumbs Up came back to score again, then Hasbro found their way past Thumbs Up’s defence once more, then this pattern repeated itself until Thumbs Up held the second half together, hammering home a winning goal and then keeping possession until the final whistle blew and victory was theirs.

After the Hasbro game the Thumbs Up team were on top form and took their next game decisively to qualify for the knockout stages and take their place in the quarter final.

The quarter finals, against the MK Doughnuts team saw Thumbs Up playing in a very evenly matched game. Both sides marked their players and passed cleanly and effectively in a textbook fashion, with several heroic shots saved by hugely effective keeping by each goalie. A few goals made their marks, however, and every time one side scored, the other managed to equalise. So – with a penalty shootout to decide the semi-finalists, tensions were raised and Thumbs Up sadly missed when MK managed to find the corner of the net.

At the end of the day this was Thumbs Up’s first tournament as a team, so the players were disappointed not to get further, but pleased with all that they achieved and had a great day out raising money for a good cause.

The final goal tally was:

Niraj Patel: 13 Goals

Vimal Pau: 9 Goals

Daniel Blackman: 2 Goals. 

Our heroes:

Standing: Vimal Pau, Mitesh Patel, Ben Walker, Daniel Blackman, Amit Patel

Front Row: Neel Kavia, Niraj Patel.

Vimal Pau shoots and scores!

Mitesh Patel marks his man as Neel Kavia guards the goal.

Daniel Blackman challenges for the ball in the corner.

Niraj Patel deflects the ball away from the goalmouth. What a save!

Vimal Pau takes another shot for goal. 

Neel Kavia dives for the ball.

Some boisterous action!

Marking our men!

The team that beat us on penalties showing off their wares.

It could have been ours! Oh well, there's always next year.