Page 10 - Eagle Eye Spring 2022

RAF Wyton Festival of Football
By SAC Liam Parker
Sometimes in football the world stands still. Sometimes the excitement, confusion, anticipation and disbelief result in those present to momentarily lose touch with reality. Indeed, these emotions were all present as players and fans watched a thunderous shot bounce down off the crossbar into the ground beyond the goal- line before bouncing back out. Their gaze turned towards the officials. Surely, they have seen what everyone else has – that a goal has just been scored. You may be thinking about that infamous night in 2010 when the world watched as Lampard’s ghost goal was not given. But no, the moment described above happened much more recently and will live long in the memory of Station personnel who bore witness.
On 21 Oct 21 and with dreary eyes 16 players spread over two teams departed at 5am to represent RAF Wyton in the Festival of Football, an annual 5-a-side competition organised by the RAF FA. At 10am and with New Meadow Stadium, home of Shrewsbury Town FC in the background, 30 teams representing 22 RAF Units kicked off all hoping they’d be crowned this year’s champion.
With both the A and B teams having to wait until the second fixtures of their respective groups to get their first taste of action they both started in a similar disappointing fashion. SAC Sam Pavlovskis giving away a penalty for the A team against Lossiemouth B and SAC Liam Richards generously passing the ball directly to a Waddington A player who pounced to put the B’s one goal down.
Fortunately for the A team SSgt Alex Vasper got his fingertips onto the penalty and pushed it onto the post. With this potential setback put to the back of their minds the A’s managed by Cpl Steve Davidson set the tone for the rest of their tournament and eventually emerged 5-0 winners against Lossie B which included a hat-trick for SAC Jack Benham. The A’s only went from strength-to-strength from here quickly dispatching 6 goals against Odiham including two fantastic turns and strikes from LCpl Aaron Males. The Marham B team also succumbed to the determination and class of the A’s. For the majority of the 12-minute game the sides were fairly even with the score remaining at 2-2 until SAC Benham broke the deadlock with two more
goals shortly following including a long-range strike from SAC Pavlovskis.
The final game of the group stage came against Digby in what could be considered in the intelligence world somewhat of a rivalry. Wyton FC and Digby FC had earlier played each other in a pre-season friendly in which Digby ran out winners and with many of the same players present, revenge was on the mind of Wyton A. The game was intensified by the fact Digby had also won their previous three games which meant that the winner of this game would have the satisfaction, and bragging rights, of finishing group winners. Digby came out strongly and quickly marched to a 3-goal lead and for a while it looked like they would hold out for the remainder of the game. However, a tactical substitution by Cpl Davidson saw the team take a more attacking approach with LCpl Males replacing SAC Jack Turner. An excellent last five minutes which really highlighted the skill, brilliance and grit of the A team saw the comeback of the tournament with two goals from LCpl Males and two from WO Ross Thomson as well as a game-saving block from Pavlovskis earning Wyton a hard-fought 4-3 victory.
WO Thomson’s two goals took his tally to an impressive eight goals in four games. Underpinning the performances of the A team throughout the group stage was their superb goalkeeper SSgt Vasper who established himself as one of the best keepers at the tournament and without which the fortune of the A team may have been very different. The excellent performance in the group stage earned Wyton A the right to participate in the Cup tournament, the more prestigious of the two knockout competitions which would take place later in the day.
The Wyton B team found themselves in arguably a much tougher group than their counterparts and their prospects of participating in the Cup competition was further complicated by the fact they arrived with no recognised keeper with SAC Dan Carter, their first choice, injuring himself in
the weeks leading up to the tournament whilst competing for the RAF U23’s. With this in mind, B team manager SAC Sam Beasley rotated his keepers throughout the group stage with SAC Steve Kuwan getting the nod in the opening fixture.
SAC Kuwan, perhaps Wyton FC’s flashiest player, did not let the fact he was playing in goal deter him from performing flicks and tricks over opposition players when passing the ball forward. The B team was not to enjoy the same fortune as the A team they eventually conceded another three with SAC Jason Driver pulling back a consolation goal. Their second game followed a similar fate to the first by conceding five goals but with an improvement of two goals scored, one again by SAC Driver and another by SAC Ben Richards.
Their third game saw a keeper change with Fg Off Isaac Weber having a stint in goal. The change saw a difference in the prosperity for the team with a 3-2 victory against High Wycombe. SAC Driver once again found himself on the scoresheet alongside an excellent turn and finish by SAC Pete Ellis. Their final group game saw the B team return to the ways of their first two games with a 4-1 loss against Leeming. SAC Driver again scored which meant he had the remarkable record of scoring in all four group games.
At the end of group stage, the B’s found themselves in a lowly fourth with no prospect of playing in the Cup competition. Nevertheless, the spirit of the Festival of Football meant that all 30 teams had an opportunity to participate in a knock-out competition. For the B team this meant a place in the Plate Competition which consisted of the 14 lowest ranked
10 eagleye
with dreary eyes 16 players spread over two teams departed at 5am to represent RAF Wyton in the Festival of Football