Khalsa Football Federation
Leicester Tournament
Premier 2 Division
Quarter Final
Saturday 22nd June 2019
Kick Off 11.15 Actual 11.48
A.F.C. Coventry Lions 1 G.S.A. Reserves 3, attendance 50
8’ 0-1
17’ 0-2 (pen)
19’ 1-2
35’ 1-3
@ Leicester City Council Employees Sports Ground, Pitch 3
Braunstone Lane East
Leicester
LE3 2FW
No Admission
Tournament Programme, free, 68 pages.
As we waited for our scheduled 11.15 match to start, the trouble brewing following the Panjab Sandwell versus G.S.A. Youth match now turned into a mass brawl, which involved between 50 and 100 people, including one of the teams from our match, G.S.A. Reserves, who went to add numbers to members of their club involved in the fighting. For a good five minutes or so the fighting moved from one side of the pitch to the other and just as it looked like it had quietened down, another fight broke out on the fringes, and off it went again. The Police arrived just as it was calming down and some sort of order was restored.
There seemed to be a dispute going on between various sections of the G.S.A. committee and players as to whether they would actually play on, or withdraw from the tournament as some sort of protest, but eventually it was decided that they would carry on. Having kicked off 33 minutes late, it meant the match was reduced to 2 x 40 minute halves to try and get back some of the lost time and keep the rest of the day on schedule.
It didn’t appear to affect G.S.A. too much, as they came out and attacked from the off, going two goals up early on, but a superb free kick pulled Coventry Lions a goal back, but G.S.A. soon restored their two goal lead. The second half was a non event. This match didn’t finish until 13.17, which could have been a problem, as our next match was due to start at 13.00. Thankfully, the game beforehand went to penalties, so our next match was going to start late and it meant we had a minute gap between our match finishing and the next one starting. It was a good job it was only about 25 yards between the two pitches.
