Merseyside CSSC is trying to put together a ladies football team. If you have any interest in ladies football, whether you play already or want to have a go get in touch with :
Merseyside CSSC won this year's prestigious Lewis Cup competition, after defeating the Inland Revenue national team in a penalty shootout following a 2-2 draw.
Managers, Mick Cain and Stephen King (and try booking into a hotel with those two names) advertised early in the season for triallists across the Merseyside Estate, both within the city centre and Bootle. There was a tremendous response, and the job of whittling the squad to a manageable number was not easy.
Whilst knowing all about some lads from previous years, others had their chance and appeared in a friendly match against Accrington Stanley's youth team. Merseyside were certainly not outplayed in a 3-3 draw. This prepared the boys for the first game of the tournament proper, against the Tax and Credits Office from Preston. We won 9-1, but although you may think that they had Ray Charles in goal, they actually went through to the final of the plate competition. This shows that they weren't a bad team, but we are a very good one.
Fate dealt us a blow before the next game when our talismanic captain, John Tyrer, broke his leg in a Sunday league game. Other teams might have struggled under the weight of this blow, but not Merseyside. We re-grouped and beat the national Customs team 3-0 at their place (which happened to be Thornton on the day!). Mike Young from Nationality Group was outstanding, as was the new captain (and biggest moaner in the western hemisphere) Stephen King jnr.
The semi final was played against our old rivals, and hot favourites to win the competition for the third year in five, Newcastle Sports and Leisure. The geordies always give us a tough game, and this was no different. At Lilleshall Sports Centre the lads dominated play and won 2-1 in extra time. The goals were scored by Thomas King from CRB and Will Dolan from Revenue in Bootle, who notched after a cross by ageing veteran Paul Lawless.
On to the final, which was to be staged at England's training ground, Bisham Abbey, and the boys were well prepared and in the right frame of mind. We trained at Bisham Abbey the night before the game and got used to our surroundings. The following day the game kicked off a bit late, and on the adjacent pitch to our friends from TCO. We took control early on, and the excellent Andy Glendenning was rampant in the centre forward role.
Dominic Talbot and Andy Taylor were playing like they'd played for us forever, when they hadn't, and Simon Gore and Aiden Pepper were outstanding in the midfield engine room. Thomas King scored our first goal again, slicing a shot into the corner of the net from 8 yards, and Merseyside looked good value for their lead. Unfortunately, the opposition weren't reading our script and they got a dubious equaliser, the ball appearing to go in off the number 8's arm.
A stalemate ensued until 30 seconds before the end of normal time when Lawless, on for the injured Thomas King, contrived to miss a chance that really sat up and begged to be buried. No matter, this team does things the hard way.
Extra time was needed and things looked like repeating themselves from the semi final contest.(Extra time, Thomas off injured, Lawless on). Again, we dominated the play and looked the side most likely to score. Then out of the blue, Will Dolan, the man of the match scored a wonder goal (deja-vu from the semi). Wild celebrations commenced on the sidelines. In fact one of our subs pulled a muscle as he celebrated, and as I tried to bring him on, Scott McGreal informed me that he had injured himself and couldn't play.......
Fortunately, we had players of the quality of Alex Duffin/Michael Wilson and Dan Seagraves to also choose from.
Unfortunately, we brought Duffin on..... I'll tell you in a minute. The opposition weren't to be denied, and to their immense credit they equalised again. The clock ran down and it was all down to penalties. Will Dolan despatched our first one. Our mad goalie, (they're all mad) Dave Warby saved their first one. Andy Taylor missed his pen, but the Mad Goalie saved another.
Tony Cumiskey stepped up to the plate and despatched a crisp shot away from their cat. They scored their next pen. 2-1. If we scored this next pen we were there. Alex Duffin took it. It wasn't the greatest pen ever. In fact, it may have been the worst pen ever. Their goalie was lying on the ground waiting for it by the time it trickled to him. Way to take a pen Duffs.... They missed their next pen, so the score was 2-1. So, all fell to Mike Young to win us the cup. Youngy's a confident lad and the outcome of his shot was never in doubt. We won the cup! Thanks to everybody involved this season, including John Quayle (and what a player Quayley is), Dan Seagraves, who played in the TCO game, and Mike Wilson, who has a big future with us... Special mention to new dad Steve Boardman, our resident Statto. He was only kept out of goal by the fact that we had an even madder goalie!
We will be parading the cup around all those offices with representatives from their areas.
Thank you to all managers who made this possible by allowing the boys the time to represent our area, and the Merseyside Civil Service Sports Committee for their continued support and enthusiasm.
There is a competition held regularly for both 5 and 11 aside teams. Details are on csscnorthwest.co.uk We have an Area side who enter the Lewis Cup, a National competition. Details can be had from the football secretary. Stephen King on 0151242 8332
CSSC Members can get 25% off pitch hire at Play-Football (Crosby Venue).
For further details contact Simon or Adam on 0845 257 8000
