| The Supporters Club Penalty Shootout Competition 2002/2003 |
| At the start of the 2002/2003 season Gloucester City Chairman Colin Gardner suggested the idea of a penalty shootout competition to take place during the half time interval at City's home games. For a £5.00 entry fee Supporters Club members were invited to take part, with the grand prize being a specially comissioned plaque to be awarded at the Presentation evening in May. |
| Entries were slow originally but picked up towards the closing date and in the end we'd managed to attract twenty people who were either brave or foolish enough to take part. Because of the odd number of entrants, a 'preliminary' round was needed to whittle the number of entries down to sixteen. |
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Preliminary Round
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| Neil Phelps |
3-2 |
Trevor Howard |
| Tracey Squibb |
1-2 |
Tony Hickey |
| Steve White |
3-4 |
Sean White |
| Helen Wood |
2-4 |
Mark Compton |
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| There were a few talking points in the preliminaries. The draw had pitted Sean White against his father, Steve. There was no favouritism as the younger White sent his father packing. Tracey Squibb (of the City Ladies team) took on ace photographer Tony Hickey prior to the Ladies match versus Bristol Manor Farm. You'd have struggled to find two more inept spot kick takers as the contest finished 2-1 to the snapper! |
| Trevor Howard (Dr Wart Hoover to his followers) became the first casualty of the competition by not only losing to myself but also injuring himself in the process! He wasn't the only competitor in the wars though, all round good sport and stand-in goalkeeper Russell Price was almost knocked clean off his feet whilst attempting to parry a thunderbolt of a penalty from Helen 'Mouse' Wood. Sadly for her, her finesse couldn't match her power as she succumbed to the challenge of Mark Compton. She put it down to nerves, I put it down to that divot! |
| Videos of Neil Phelps v's Trevor Howard (courtesy of Dan Martin) |
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First Round
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| Daryll Cox |
3-4 |
Ian Compton |
| Tony Hickey |
6-7 |
Nigel Price |
| Alison Kingscote |
1-3 |
Neil Phelps |
| Mark Compton |
3-4 |
Martin Gaylard |
| Russell Price |
1-3 |
Lee Mills |
| Andy Birchley |
8-7 |
Tim Lezard |
| Phil Warren |
0-3 |
Ken Phelps |
| Dan Martin |
2-4 |
Sean White |
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| The first round proper provided us with some interesting ties. The Compton family had their ups and downs. Dad Ian (Taff as he is better known) made light work of City director Darryl Cox despites the latter getting tips off his own son Jimmy! However, young Mark succumbed to the challenged of outside Martin 'Slim' Gaylard. The usual goalkeeper, Russell 'Teaboy' Price had also entered, but he was best left between the sticks as young TF2003 Lee Mills beat him soundly, that was my one and only experience of goalkeeping... |
| There were three shootouts played after the final whistle. A trend which was only to be repeated in the final itself. First, Bristols own Nigel Price despatched of our favourite photographer Tony Hickey in a game that went deep into sudden death. Nigel had all the tricks, including some wonderful eye movement, yet Tony had the support of the City players during their warm down! In another tie, a rather reluctant Phil 'Noah' Warren, not dressed for the occasion (given the muddy pitch) was easily beaten by Ken 'Forest Fred' Phelps. Not only did Noah lose, he also got injured in the process! The third post-match tie featured myself and the ladies teams stalwart defender Alison Kingscote. Despite having the remainder of the crowd on her side, the fact that she'd never scored a goal shone through as she missed all bar one of her kicks. |
| The two outstanding ties, involving competitors from Gloucester, Solihull, Berkeley and Stockport were a nightmare to arrange, but we managed to get them done on the day of the FA Trophy game at home to Woking in february. Ladies man Dan was humiliated by young Sean, but did win the prize for the best dressed competitor! The other tie, between Tim Lezard and Andy 'Shandy' Birchley threatened to delay the kick off of the second half, but was eventually won by our man oop north. |
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| A few pictures from the first round ties. Click on them to view them full size |
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Second Round
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| Martin Gaylard |
5-6 |
Neil Phelps |
| Sean White |
bye |
Andy Birchley |
| Nigel Price |
0-3 |
Ian Compton |
| Ken Phelps |
4-3 |
Lee Mills |
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| With the men now sorted from the boys (and girls), or in Seans case, the boys from the men, er, whatever, we reached the second round proper. After several City games were postponed, the tournament was in danger of over running the actual season, so we, Slim (Martin Gaylard) and myself took the opportunity and played our tie first. For once, with Guy Lammiman (of SFC Tigers) in goal, I struggled and looked like I was on my way out. However, a change of fortune and a couple of toe punts saw me through. |
| The previously unflappable Nigel Price took on the Welsh Wizard Taff Compton, or as the case turned out to be, didn't! Three terrible kicks versus Taff's three sweetly struck efforts gave us the easier knockout of the competition. Surely Nigel will be eager to return next season to make amends. |
| Tigers Fan Lee Mills, now TF2003 because his work commitments had made him much less of a fan played the first tuesday night encounter against Cinderford's own 'Forest Fred' aka Ken Phelps. All the time and effort that Lee took putting his boots on was wasted as FF's years in the Northern Senior League put paid to TF2003's challenge. This, as well as having his mate Joe Green in goal didn't help the young Tigers Fan's cause!!! |
| The tie which threatened to delay the competition was between Sean White (of Solihull) and Andy Birchley (our man Shandy in Stockport). Their appearances at City's home games together was akin to ships passing in the night, and with the impending arrival of Shandy jnr, Shandy snr did the honourable thing and forfeited the tie in favour of the young Brummie. A magnificent gesture from a local sporting hero! |
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| A few pictures from the Ian Compton v's Nigel Price tie. Click on them to view them full size |
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Semi-Finals
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| Neil Phelps |
4-2 |
Sean White |
| Ian Compton |
4-3 |
Ken Phelps |
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| The pressure was now on, it was semi final time! |
| Both ties were scheduled to take place on saturday April 19th (the day after my 30th birthday), but the pressure was so much that Forest Fred didn't show! In the name of good sportsmanship, he was given the opportunity to play against Taff on the final day of the season. |
| In the other semi final, it was the pocket rocket from Solihull, Sean White versus myself. Now, I've tried not to take the competition too seriously throughout, but here I was faced with a dilemma about playing against a child. Not easy. Sean won the toss and asked me to go first. I aimed wide (not trying to miss) and found by best form of the whole competition, totally inadvertantly! Sean missed crucial penalties and ended up losing. This was in front of his mother who'd made the trip especially to see his moment of glory. Sorry for spoiling it Mrs W!!! |
| So, onto the other semi. As previously mentioned, it was played out at half time during the Cirencester match. Forest Fred put in an appearance on the T-End with moments to spare, dispelling rumours that he'd bottled it. Then our goalkeeper and stand in goalkeeper failed to show, so we were grateful for Joe Green for standing in at the last minute. Poor old Joe didn't touch the ball however except when he was picking it out of the net as the only blemishes were two misses by Ken and one by Taff. This set up a final showdown between England and Wales after the final whistle! |
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| Two pictures of Forest Fred, the losing semi-finalist. Click on them to view them full size |
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| Video clips of the semi-final ties |
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Final
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| Ian Compton |
4-5 |
Neil Phelps |
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| The Grand Final! |
| Over eight months have passed between Trevor Howard's first kick and my last one and with the words of Noah jnr 'I think we've seen the overall winner today' in my mind, I scored a victory for England with a seamless 5-4 victory over Taff. Poor Joe might not've touched the ball in the previous semi-final but his first act proved essential as he blocked Taff's kick. The other nine kicks all ended up in the back of the net, Taff's with aplomb, mine with some luck as I'd reserved my worst performance for the final. |
| Thanks to Joe for helping us out again yesterday. Also thanks to Russell Price and Guy Lammiman for doing the goalkeeping duties, and thanks to everyone who took part. The Supporters Club is £100 better off, get your entries in next season and lets see if we can double the proceeds! |
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| Pictures from the final, courtesy of Mike Dunstan. Click on them to view them full size |
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| Video clips of the Final |
| Videos of Taff Compton v's Neil Phelps (filmed by Dan Martin) |
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