Falcons travelled to Leeds for the annual Yorkshire Terriers Tournament this weekend and it's safe to say we were champions in the bars rather than on the pitch!
Dean helpfully got Matt to the train station an hour before departure and, with everyone else arriving on time, we were off. It's fair to say the outcome of the night for some people was set in stone from the moment a bottle was opened and, with plenty of time to kill with an afternoon arrival, the pre-drinking got going.
We hit town at 8pm and, needless to say, the details from then on are a little hazy. Alex and Brady's early peak resulted in an early ride home while the rest of the boys caught up with teams from Manchester, Romans and Blaze.
Needless to say, everyone was feeling a little special the next morning and it's not so surprising that our football form was a little bit off. When I say a little bit, I mean a whole continent off!
Things got off to a bad start with a 2-1 defeat to Mersey and continued badly with a draw against Yorkshire and defeat to Nottingham.
The second round of fixtures looked more promising as we took a 2-0 lead against Mersey but threw it away for a draw. Another goalless draw with Yorkshire followed before we finally got a win with a 1-0 defeat of Nottingham.
So, the delights of a Vase entry and Pete and Matt were both pleased to be drawn against their former team, Village Manchester. Things looked pretty comfortable until the referee elected not to penalise a Manchester foul and they took advantage to score the only goal of the game and knock us out of the tournament. This probably means we were the very worst team there. Proud.
(For the record, Nottingham Lions won the tournament!)
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pub to catch the Premier League action before heading back to London in the evening.
It's been a long time since we had the chance to do a club away trip and, for a few of the new guys, this was their first Falcons on tour experience. I think they left their mark!
Thanks to Yorkshire Terriers for organising a great weekend and we hope to see everyone again when we travel to Manchester for the Summer Sevens tournament in July.
