Page 43 - MERCIAN Eagle 2018

Football – CSgt Street
1 MERCIAN got the 17/18 season off to a slow, but steady start.
Following on from a season where
1 MERCIAN had no points on the board CSgt Street took over as the coach in Mar 18. With a few fresh faces in the team there was an instant
improvement.
flying the flag for 1 MERCIAN. We had been kindly hosted by both West Bromwich Albion Football Club and Burton Albion. These visits consisted of full stadium tours and a small training session on Burton Albion’s all-weather pitch. The team also
With the first result being a 4-4 away result against 26 Engineers and a very positive attacking performance, 1 MERCIAN footballers literally pulled up their socks and results soon improved.
visited one of our former soldiers, Anthony ‘Bomber’ Bailey, at his fight gym in Stafford where he put the team through their paces with the local media present.
The tour also consisted of 3 friendly matches, a 2-1 loss
in Chesterfield, 2-1 win in Wolverhampton and finally an unfortunate 2-1 loss against our sister Bn 2 MERCIAN, all would agree a draw was the deserved result. Next time we’ll play at home with our referee; not bitter at all.
The following 2 league fixtures were convincing home wins which lifted the team off the bottom of the table at the end of the season, finishing mid table.
The main shining moment for the team was a week’s long tour of the Midlands
Post-season saw us play 3 more friendly matches up until the deployment to Oman in September. These results saw the team convincingly beat the RA 5-1, and twice beating 5 RIFLES effortlessly in their 2 warm up games prior to their Infantry cup final.
Finally, in Sep 18, before deployment to Oman, 9 of the team’s players entered into Tidworth and Bulford Garrison festival of sports 5-a-side competition. 1 MERCIAN won all 4 ties in this tournament and became the eventual winners.
All in all, the 18/19 season looks very positive for 1 MERCIAN. The prospect of an overseas tour to Cyprus being hosted by
2 MERCIAN has the players raring to go.
Stood Firm Struck Hard.
With a few fresh faces in the team there was an instant improvement.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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