9th - 10th July 2016
Photos of the Saturday can be seen here.
Photos of Sunday, here.
Hayes and Yeading United won the 7th annual Jimmy Hill and Geoff Harvey Memorial Tournament at their first attempt beating Hampton and Richmond Borough 4-2 at Corinthian-Casuals' King George's Arena.
Mickey Lewis' new look side made the final after besting Casuals 3-1 on the Saturday with Alan Dowson's Ryman Premier championship winning Hampton & Richmond Borough joining them after cruising past Tonbridge Angels 4-0.
The Saturday was marred by the nasty head injury to Corinthian-Casuals' Niall Wright who had to be attended to by Paramedics on the pitch before being rushed to St George's Hospital. Thankfully, Wright made a speedy recovery and was welcomed back to watch the next day. After a 45 minute delay, Casuals, who were 3-0 down at half time struck one back and missed a handful of chances to get back in the tie.
Casuals finished the tournament in third after turning over Steve McKimm's youthful Tonbridge side with goals from Jamie Byatt and Jerson Dos Santos completing the win.
The final saw Hayes and Yeading go two-up inside ten minutes. Dylan Kearney and Tom Collins inflicting the damage on Dowson's men before Beaver's new signing Guiseppe Sole pulled one back from the spot. With the game heading towards its finale, Kearney struck twice more to complete an impressive hat-trick before Hampton scored a late consolation.
The tournament was well received by all involved and played in great spirit on a beautiful surface maintained by award winning groundsmen Rob Darby and Brian Adamson. Spectators witnessed an average of four goals per game in a thoroughly entertaining weekend.
After the tournament ended on the Sunday, Casuals boss James Bracken commented on the weekend and what hopes he has for the season ahead.
“The weekend's been another big success. Obviously, Niall's injury on Saturday was worrying but other than that, there's been some good football played by all the teams. A lot of players had a decent run-out and touch wood, we've had no injuries for any of the sides, so that's good.
“Results from this aren't the be-all and end-all but obviously we want to win every game and that's how we'll always approach them, mostly because I don't think I know any other way.
“Second half against Hayes and Yeading, we played fantastically well and probably had enough chances to get back in the game and tilt it in our favour, even though we were 3-0 down at half time.
“On the Sunday, I thought the first half, we were excellent, played some great football, got ourselves in charge of the game and put ourselves 2-0 up. Then we got through the second half with good control albeit a little conservative with a few tired legs creeping in towards the end.
"All in all, fantastic... everything I wanted to get out of it, I got.
"We're optimistic going forward. We approached this weekend with three of our back five missing. You put them back in and that's going to strengthen us. But going forward, I thought we looked good.
"It's the first of the friendlies as well so I expect a lot of improvement over the coming weeks but I'm optimistic. I know what we've got in our squad and I'm pleased with it.
"To the season ahead, we're never looking to go backwards so forwards for us is a playoff place. There's a couple of teams who've come into our league with reportedly decent budgets and told that they will be a threat, but it's all to play for.
"We need to start the season well, get ourselves on a run. What we and the boys learned from last year is this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon and in 62 or 63 games time, we'll see where we end up. We'll be ready and I don't see any reason why we can't make the playoffs as a minimum.
Results:
Game 1: Hampton and Richmond Borough 4 – 0 Tonbridge Angels
Game 2: Corinthian-Casuals 1 – 3 Hayes and Yeading Utd
Game 3: Corinthian-Casuals 2 – 0 Tonbridge Angels
Final: Hayes and Yeading Utd 4 – 2 Hampton and Richmond Borough