With Jebu, Denti, Dan and Duds forming the backline the average age was about 23 and they would have to draw upon as much of their youthful energy as possible to keep out this talented QPR side.
In midfield Gaz Elliot battled through his ten thousand injuries to stand proud in the middle of the park with young Lee who knew this was the biggest game of his life thus far and ready to do battle. On the wings the experience of soon to be new manager,
Up front it was the super human running machine Jammer that acted as our first line of defence. Partnering him was the tournaments leading scorer and a man QPR know all too well, Steve Burns. In the league game earlier in the year a weakened QPR side took a 4-1 beating against IMFC and in a period of 15 minutes Mr Burns notched a hat-trick, did the big man have enough in his legs for clinical finishing like that?
The game started at a slower pace than expected with both sides a bit cagey in the opening few minutes. There were certainly a lot of tired legs on both sides but to be fair QPR were slowly getting on top and forcing IMFC onto the back foot. This similar pattern would be to continue for the rest of the game and there is no shame in saying that QPR were fantastic in the middle of the park sweeping forward with some great passing moves early in the game.
However, the IMFC midfield did not give QPR the time to pick any fancy passes; all 4 midfielders were tight on their man as soon as possible restricting QPR to a lot of sideways short passes. When they did breach through the midfield they came storming forward in waves but were constantly blocked by the IMFC rearguard. QPR tried every which way to break down the defence from going down the middle to pushing the ball out wide to the flanks but it all ended in rather tame efforts or possession lost.
At the other end IMFC were not fashioning many chances but with a few minutes left of the first half our tactics almost paid off with Mr Burns clean through on goal with only the keeper to beat. In what seemed our only chance of the half the big striker unleashed a fierce shot but from nowhere the defender, who was behind him, flung himself around and in the way of the ball. It was a fantastic tackle but one the defender did at a price. Such was the acrobatics of the tackle that the young defender had to be carried off the pitch with a nasty looking injury and was replaced by an older looking counterpart. Going into half time IMFC felt this posed more chance of getting our strikers in behind and hitting on the counter.
So at half time the score was 0-0 just as it had been against
The second half started similar to the first in that QPR were commanding the show. However, their tactics had changed completely from flowing football to long ball, long throws and look for any knock downs. It was at this point that Denti claimed his stake for man of the match as he seemingly won everything in the air that went anywhere near him. Duds recovered from a shaky first half to dominate in the air near him and become a man mountain. Dan can also hold his own in the air which left Jebu as the sweeper whenever the ball did get past the first man.
Not only was the defence getting in the way of every ball but Gaz and Lee were back in the mixer ensuring they got anything on the ball, stopping the QPR long balls and throws into the box.
Then after about 5 minutes pressure came the moment we were waiting for. A terrible mistake by the QPR full back passed the ball into Burnsy’s feet who was stood on the defensive back line. As the defenders wondered what had happened the big man turned and speeded away. With the keeper out coming he calmly slipped the ball past him into the corner of the net to spark wild scenes amongst the IMFC players and supporters. 10 more minutes holding out and the cup was coming back with us to
If the IMFC rearguard was under pressure before than for the next ten minutes it was under constant bombardment. With QPR getting more and more frustrated as to why the ball wasn’t going in the back of the net after having so much pressure the balls into the box got more desperate. To be honest we were confident that they wouldn’t breach the backline as even when called upon Shark had safe hands and didn’t look likely to let any long range efforts past him.
So time ticked away at an incredibly slow rate, each second seemed like hours until there was no more than 30 second left on the clock. With a final long ball the QPR striker went up to head but Dan shoved him in the back to give them a dangerous free kick 20 yards out on the left hand side of the box. The lad stood over the ball had been released by
With one step he curled the free kick and it planted in the top right hand corner of the net. He couldn’t have placed it any better and it was the hall mark of a quality strike and quality player. There was no way Shark could get near it and as the ball hit the back of the net every IMFC player hit the deck distraught. After nearly 120 minutes not conceding it was a wonder free kick that broke us down to take the game into extra time. Quite literally seconds after kick off the referee blew the whistle.
The players were dead and Dan was distraught for giving away the free kick. It was the old heads like Paul Elliott,
The extra time was no different to the rest of the game, IMFC bombarded by QPR who were commanding the game. With a superb penalty record since our loss to
Then a killer blow, the QPR winger skipped past JV and headed towards Dan and Jebu in the box. Jebu slipped and the QPR player just ran full pelt and belted the ball into the chest of Jebu on the floor. For some insane reason the ref pointed to the spot for a handball to the amazement of everyone on the pitch. The supporters on the sideline from people who stayed on to watch could not believe the decision and neither could Jebu who went absolutely mental at the ref. Looking a bit sheepish the ref put the ball on the spot and ignored all protests and up stepped the guy who curled a free kick into the top corner from 25 yards out.
Stand up Mr Woolass, aka Shark. A booming drive down the centre saw the young keeper get down low quickly and some how push the ball out to the corner flag. It was an amazing save and given everyone on the pitch was expecting QPR to be celebrating no one at all reacted to the loose ball which calmly sat in the corner for a few seconds. It was an amazing sequence of events and it had to be the Lord himself looking down and giving out a bit of justice for what was the most ridiculous penalty decision ever given against IMFC. If the Millers were to go on and win this game Shark would have made himself a hero.
IMFC had survived and it was now a matter of battling on to penalties, or was it? QPR seemed a little shell shocked from the missed pen and were no longer driving forward in waves like before. They almost had a resigned to penalties feel about them and with IMFC dead on their legs they would be happy to take them at this point.
Then with about 3 minutes to go some scrappy play in midfield saw a header knocked down to Burnsy on the left hand side of the half way line. Reacting first the big man got a 5 yard start on the defenders with clear space in front of him and the keeper in view. In a normal game (i.e. not having played 250 minutes before) you would bank your mortgage on Mr Burns speeding away and slotting it past the keeper. However, he was physically drained and as his legs got motoring the defenders were slowly reeling in that 5 yard head start. He started out wide left and ended over near the right side of the box. With the defenders about to pounce and the keeper about to slide in and challenge, Mr Burns unleashed a shot with everything he had left in his body. It beat the keeper and started heading towards the net, it was looking tight but was it going to hit the back of the net?
………..The whole of
The ball smacked into the corner of the net and sent the Millers into absolute delirium. No one cared about dead legs anymore as each and every player sprinted with all their might into the corner to mob each other, jumping over crying QPR players laid on the floor in disbelief.
The team from
64 teams and only one could walk away with the big prize of the cup. Conceding just 4 goals throughout the tournament and scoring a massive 18 in a little over 270 minutes of football. Steve Burns ended as tournament leading scorer with 12 goals!
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