Khalsa Football Federation

Leicester Tournament

Division 2

1st Round

Saturday 22nd June 2019

Kick Off 09.30 Actual 09.31

F.C. Panjab Sandwell 2 G.S.A. Youth 4, attendance 30

18’ 0-1

33’ 1-1

49’ 1-2

51’ 2-2

74’ 2-3

80’+ 6, 2-4

@ Leicester City Council Employees Sports Ground, Pitch 2

Braunstone Lane East

Leicester

LE3 2FW

No Admission

Tournament Programme, free, 68 pages.

Having attended this tournament last year, I arrived with a list of 4 pitches that I hadn’t seen matches on previously. Although the fixtures are on the tournament website, the actual pitches are not known until you arrive on the morning of the opening round of matches. It turned out to be a real bonus today though, as they were using the three pitches at the Leicester City Council Employees Sports Ground, which hadn’t been used last year, so I decided to do a match on each of these, then see if I had the stamina to do any more matches after this.

From the two tournaments played so far, in Walsall and Birmingham,(they use the same venues for both competitions) these were the top two teams in the overall league table. There used to be three divisions, but this year there has been a ‘Premier 2’ added, although it means a number of teams receive a bye in the first round of this division, which is the lowest level, due to it having fewer entrants. It is also the only one of the four divisions that are played as 80 minute games, rather than the traditional 90.

This was a really good game, although it turned into a very niggly affair, especially after G.S.A. went ahead late in the match through a controversial goal. Panjab thought a free kick should have been awarded to them, but having stood and watched G.S.A. score, they then argued with the Referee and each other for around 6 or 7 minutes before the game finally restarted. To make matters worse, G.S.A. then added a fourth goal well into added time to seal a 2-4 win.

As we headed to Pitch 3, for the scheduled 11.15 kick off, the arguments continued on the other pitch and as well as the two teams that had just played, it now seemed to have Sikh Hunters involved as well, as they were trying to warm up for their match, but were being hampered by the arguments that were beginning to become much more heated………it was about to ignite, big style!