Khalsa Football Federation

Leicester Tournament

Premier 2 Division

Semi Final

Saturday 22nd June 2019

Kick Off 16.45 Actual 16.57

G.N.G. Leicester 2 G.S.A. Reserves 3, attendance 125

6’ 0-1

64’ 0-2

68’ 1-2

74’ 1-3 (pen)

90’+ 1, 2-3 (pen)

@ Riverside Football Ground (F.C. G.N.G.)

Braunstone Lane East

Leicester

LE3 2FW

No Admission

Tournament Brochure, free, 68 pages.

I had decided earlier in the day that if the host club G.N.G. Leicester were playing in the Premier 2 Division Semi Final, then I would stay on for one last match. It should never have been in doubt, and it wasn’t, as they had won all their matches in the Walsall and Birmingham tournaments and comfortably won their opening match this morning as well, judging by their winning margin. My decision was also swayed by the fact that the match was being played on the Riverside Football Ground main pitch, which is home to F.C. G.N.G. who play in the Leicestershire Senior League, Premier Division. It was also the only ground in that league that I hadn’t visited as the 2018/19 season came to a close. Despite being floodlit, it made more sense to do a match whilst I was here, rather than make a special journey, and anyway, they don’t tend to play many midweek matches due to the small size of the league, so perfect.

G.S.A. took an early lead, but decided to ‘shut up shop’ and just sit back and see if G.N.G. could break them down. They relied on the blistering pace of their Number 9, who had opened the scoring, as a real weapon. Ten minutes into the second half G.N.G. had a man red carded for a foul and shortly afterwards G.S.A. broke away to make it 0-2. It looked to be all over, but the ten men replied with a 20 yarder that the ‘keeper really should have saved, to make it 1-2, but the two goal margin was quickly restored as G.S.A. scored a penalty, completing a hattrick for their Number 9. G.N.G. did reduce it to 2-3, when they scored a penalty of their own in stoppage time, but it was too late to alter the outcome.