Get up, tidy up, clean up, sweep up, dust up, everything up, say goodbye, thank the Gothia Staff, receive our award, get congratulated on our good behaviour, get on the bus ( which the driver had trouble driving ??) , get on plane - go home - job done
Thanks must go to all the adults on the trip, Alan, Malcolm, Marcus, Ian and Richard for their superb monitoring of everything - they really helped make this trip what it was - thanks guys. Thanks to Martin Barlow for his help back home on his PC, and thanks to all the players for making us all proud!
We left Mundford Village Hall in our sponsored transport from Coach Services, queued up for what seemed eternity at Stansted, jumped on our plane, landed in Gothenburg 2 hours later, and walked out into a glorious Swedish Evening to be confronted by our first ever, first class transport in a fantastic coach taking us to digs, Samskolan School. When we arrived it was late and after a little confusion we managed to get things sorted and three of us walked into the city and brought everyone a McDonalds back at 12:30am thanks to Alans Visa card.
Day 2: Monday 16th July
After a quick breakfast, we found out our first game had been moved out of the city to GAIS pro training ground. Boy was this a hike as the very unhelpful bus driver decided to drop us off about 2 miles away from where we needed to be (think he must have been an IFK fan !) After a long walk with some very frustrated players we finally found the pitch up in the hills and then had to wait 2 hours due to a back up of games. Boy was it worth the wait as our lads went to town on the opposition, a great sporting team from Northern Sweden called BK Moron - we went 1 nil down but were soon back into the game as Nathan Rose went Swede Bashing with some great runs before scoring the equaliser, Shaun Massingham then followed in to make it 2-1 for half time. We were well in control in the second half with shots whizzing past the Swedish Goalie but unfortunatley past the goal as well. It was left to Rose to find the killer touch as he latched onto a superb Foster thru ball to lob the Swedish keeper to make it 3-1 - brilliant. That eveing after we finally got back to the school (thanks to private Gothia cars taxi-ing us) we all piled into the great Ullevi stadium for the Opening ceremony with 52000 others - what a nite!
Day 3: Tuesday 17th July
Up early to make our first visit to Kviberg pitches. Here we met a team from Stockholm - Tyreso FF, and found them a much stronger team than the day before. We had plently of half chances but never looked lucky on this day. Tyreso on the other hand were a force and their attackers were a real handful for our defenders, particularly number 7 who was as good a number 7 as we have seen for a long time. Tyreso went away with hadnshakes and a 2 nil win and we looked back at missed chances and also respect for a better passing team. That evening some went to the ClubGothia, a massive 5000 niteclub, others went for stroll downtown, and me and Alan went to the excellent Gothia Leaders Nite.
Day 4: Wednesday 18th July
This was a day of reckoning for us as we needed to beat the German team DJK Sudwest Koln to qualify for the A finals at our first attempt. Everything looked good, the Germans had been struggling to compete and we arrived at Kviberg quietly confident. Big mistake - the Germans were like Dersingham but bigger - ouch. we huffed and we puffed (as did the wind) but we never blew the German team away in the first half and the second half was like a typical Mundford bad day as the Germans found the from they had missed earlier in the games and ripped us apart 3 nil - this hurt bad and was a particular blow for our defence as they had worked as hard as they could and some to keep them out. Unfortunatley we weren't good enough ahead of them to keep the ball away. We all went back to the school a bit deflated but soon picked ourselves up as we realised that we were still in the B competition and our home results guru Martin Barlow let me know we may get an Italian team the next day to play - result - come on
Day 5: Thursday 19th July
A few of us went and sussed the Italians out - wow- what a team, they stuffed some poor Swedish outfit 6-0, could have been 60-0. We were excited about playing such a team and boy did we give them a game, Danny Foster was like a man posessed, Rosey clung onto everything he could, running everywhere, our defence was hard as granite and our midfield worked as hard as I have seen for many a year. Yea we lost 3-2 in the last minute, but, and heres the thing, I didnt care as I had at last seen a Mundford team stand up and be counted, it was like watching them mature in 60 minutes, quite brilliant. The Italians were fantastic in their football and equally once they had one - a fine example of a football team ( one that got to the final as well ) and a fine example as young men. Funny, that evening we went to watch a UEFA cup game but it was boring as anything after our game and also watching the likes of Kampala Kids, Steau Bucharest etc
Day 6: Friday 20th July
This was a well deserved chill out day, some went shopping, some met up with new friends, some watched footie, some played footie, and I chilled out with my headache (typical eh!). That night we watched some more footie, everyone met back up at the school and I bought the Pizzas !! A good day and a good day for all those who had earn't my trust that week to be repaid with some own time - well done
