Paul Bryson Reports on ECFA Trip to Italy

The ECFA men’s national squad have returned home after a very successful tournament in Terne, Italy. We were drawn against Romania, Slovenia and United Arab Emirates.
On Monday we played UAE in our first game and won 1-0. We knew all these national teams are very good in possession and don’t give the ball away cheaply. The game was fairly even in the first half and we managed to go in at half time 1-0 up thanks to an Olly Palmer strike after following in from a set piece. This was a great 3 points for us and gave us great confidence going in to Tuesday’s game against Romania.
Tuesday we travelled to the ground and kicked off against Romania at 3pm. We made some changes to the starting 11 and the game was very even and there were competitive battles in midfield. We scored in the 70th minute through a great left footed strike from Jon Clements to give us all 3 points.
On Wednesday we played our final group game against Slovenia and just needed to avoid defeat to go through to the final. We got off to a great start when Max Etheridge ran on to a through ball and finished confidently. We were in control throughout until Charlie Marshall was sent off after 70 minutes and Slovenia equalised with 5 minutes to go. Nick Pope made a great save in the last minute to deny Slovenia all 3 points. The point was enough to get us into the final and we were drawn against Italy who had breezed through there group.
We played the final on the Friday at Ternana FC against the Italians. In torrential rain we started the game quite well and it was evenly matched but we were on the wrong end of some terrible refereeing decisions. We got caught on the counter attack just before half time and the Italian forward hit a great strike into the roof of the net. The second half started well and we had a couple of chances from set pieces, then in the 65th minute Olly Palmer went through and was challenged by the Italian Centre Back which we all thought was a penalty but the referee booked Olly who was then sent off as this was his second yellow card. The Italians wrapped the game up in the 90th minute to seal a 2-0 win over the ECFA.
Our lads had an excellent tournament and exceeded all expectations in getting to the final.