Young Bankies pick up trophy

Published 9 Jun 2010 12:00 0 Comments

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LAST Saturday Clydebank FC under-14s travelled to the land of World Cup holders Italy to compete in the Tourneo Di Citta Cesena.

The young Bankies were the talk of the tournament after winning four games and drawing one and not conceding a single goal on the way to picking up the trophy.

Paul McConachie was also awarded player of the tournament as he was outstanding at the heart of the Bankies' defence.

On the Sunday night the boys attended a superb opening ceremony as they paraded round a full stadium with 2,000 other participants before belting out their national anthems followed by a spectacular firework display.

The young Bankies were competing in a five-team group with the group winners going to the final.

First up for the young Bankies was a hard game in blistering heat against Boscoreale from Napoli.

Clydebank dominated this game but found themselves up against a typically strong Italian defence and it took a wonder strike from right-back Ronan McGarvey to break the deadlock.

This was soon followed by Kyle Whyte strike to give the young Bankies the perfect 2-0 start.

Next up for Clydebank was a match against Ruvese from the city of Bari.

The boys found themselves up against a team that used every dirty trick in football, such as diving, spitting, shirt pulling and off the ball incidents.

And despite the over zealous referee showing three red cards, the young Bankies battled well to claim a 0-0 draw.

Clydebank then travelled to another excellent venue the next evening to take on Gorgio Taddei, without their three suspended players.

The young Bankies played some excellent football and Andrew McElhill opened the scoring before Scott Cameron added a second. Clydebank now had to take on the group favourites, Napoli Pro Calcio, the next morning and also knew goal difference could be important in qualifying for the final.

Andy McElhill got the boys off to a great start in the second minute with a scrappy goal, followed by a Ryan McAllen header again from a McGinlay corner to give the young Bankies a 2-0 lead at half time.

McAllen side footed a great finish in the second half before completing his hat-trick with a great shot to give the Bankies a 4-0 victory against quality opposition.

With news filtering through that Ruvese could only win 5-0 the boys celebrated reaching the final.

Back at the hotel Bankies received a fax two hours before the final stating that the Italian organisers were awarding the tie in the third game to Gorgio Taddei due to Clydebank not providing passport idetification before the match.

However, this had never been requested and the lads felt hard done by that they were forced to play in the third /fourth play-off against Chieno.

Putting the disappointment aside, Mark McGrory raced from centre to slot home the opener.

Joe McGinlay then made it two, but with the opposition players having given up in protest against the organisers, the referee was forced to abandon the game amnd it was awarded to Clydebank .

Clydebank captain Calum Davidson then led his proud team to pick up the trophy in the closing awards ceremony.

Squad: Robbie Macdonald, Ronan McGarvey, Andy McElhill, David Doyle, Paul McConachie, Mark McGrory, Ryan Devitt, Calum Davidson, Adam Stevenson, Joe McGinlay, Ryan McAllen, Scott Cameron, Kyle Whyte, Mathieu Anderson, Martin Bissett.

This article appeared in Clydebank Post 09 Jun 10

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