Ignominious start, but glory in the second cup competition.
It has to be said that after three games in a strong group, the team looked despondent and were ready for an early exit.
The esteemed bunch heading to Scotland were a who’s who of Sassco history. David Smith, Davinder Sangha, David Gourlay, Chris Dixon, Mark McShane, Paul McConville and Chris Scott. Tim Gillespie bowed out with an injury and then a good hiding a few days before we were to head off.
16 teams took part in this prestigious competition, held at the Falkirk Stadium, with strong outfits from Germany, Portugal, The Netherlands, as well as from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We were honoured to have been invited and were pooled with two strong teams, Northern Ireland and Throttur Old Boys; both who achieved a top three finish last time. VV Bennekom were the other team and were beatable, but even then we failed to get past them in a 1-0 defeat.
The game prior to this was a resounding 4-0 defeat against Northern Ireland, while the final game was a 4-1 defeat against Throttur – with McShane firing in our first goal – a small consolation, but at least we were off the mark.
This meant the bottom 2 teams from all 4 groups played off for the Ice Plate. This is where our standard was. Not good enough for the top, but quite decent in the bottom set of teams. It must be said that all the teams here play together regularly, while Sassco (as always) are hastily put together and formations and positions are worked out based on personel.
A 2-1 win over Reykjavikur saw Dixon and McConville score, while the highlight of the semi final was McDermont’s miss in the penalty shoot out, in a shoot out win (Gourlay, McShane scored, while they missed two).
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This meant an unlikely final against Falkirk Foundation in their own stadium, and Sassco were controlling and decisive in a 2-0 win with McShane and McConville scoring to see two tournament wins for Sassco in May: Sweden and Scotland.
Excellent tournament organised by Marc Boal which sees it’s third series in a bigger format. Sassco have already been invited to the 2025 event.
Lava Cup 2024 – Group stage | ||
25-05-2024 11:55 | ||
 Northern Ireland |  Sassco.co.uk | |
25-05-2024 12:45 | ||
 VV Bennekom O35 | Sassco.co.uk | |
25-05-2024 13:35 | ||
 Throttur Old Boys | Sassco.co.uk | |
Lava Cup 2024 – Ice Plate | ||
25-05-2024 14:25 | ||
Sassco.co.uk |  Skautafelag Reykjavikur | |
25-05-2024 14:50 | ||
Sassco.co.uk | VV Bennekom O35 | |
25-05-2024 15:15 | ||
Sassco.co.uk |  Falkirk Foundation | |
