Boro boys bring trophy

Middlesbrough Futsal Club U14s arrived on the Futsal scene in style, winning the sixth Annual Perth Youth Futsal Open in Scotland at the weekend. 

After only five weeks of coaching, the Boro boys initially entered their first competitive Futsal tournament hoping to gain some vital experience of the game but not only did they learn a lot, they brought the trophy back to Teesside.

Bradley Laver scored the historic first Boro goal at junior level with the first kick against Letham Tangerines.  A powerful strike from the kick-off caught the keeper unaware and gave Boro the perfect start.  The young Teessiders went on to win 6-0 in the opening game, the exact same result as the first ever senior team game in 2005. 

Boro’s second match against North Muirton ended in a 4-1 defeat, but a reverse that ultimately proved important in the rest of the tournament.  A lot can be learnt from attacking and getting beat, and only an hour later that philosophy came true as Liam Manuel scored a wonder strike that Wayne Rooney would’ve been proud of to edge the game 1-0 against the team that inflicted the earlier defeat on Boro.

The tournament so far had taught the boys so much about Futsal, and a team talk before the final was geared towards taking all of this and applying it one last time. The boys were nervous and the starting five was cautiously balanced to prevent the counter attack.

If the nerves were present, they were quickly given some relief when Laver scored straight from the kick-off again. Sam Clarke, inspired by the captaincy, got Boro’s second before Manuel scored a brace to take his total to four in the tournament.

North Muirton got one back in the first half, but 4-1 at half time saw Boro in control of the final. The Scots battled away in the second half and almost pulled it back in the last minute, but a goal with the last kick of the game from Laver sealed a 6-4 win.  

The boys ran onto the pitch to celebrate and after a lot of effort and learning they deserved to be going home as champions. Coach Damon Shaw was very proud of the boys, not just for winning the competition, but also for their behaviour and attitude.

“All of the boys have done themselves and Middlesbrough proud,” he said.

“Their attitude to learning and developing was superb.  We went there to show them what Futsal is all about and from the first game right through to the final they developed with each match. 

“Junior Futsal in Middlesbrough has been kick-started and hopefully we’ll see some more teams spring up and we could see the start of a league.”