Wardleworth Easter 2008 tournament

Wardleworth community saw it's biggest ever football tournament on the last day of the Easter holidays. The community welcomed teams from all over Rochdale to participate in the event. Teams from Freehold, Deeplish, Sparth, Hamer, Wardleworth, Belfield, Newbold and Greenbank all participated in the tournament organized by Rochdale Football Clubs Community Cohesion Officer Azmat Khan.

In all there were 19 teams taking part which was a massive turnout. Azmat says "the tournament was organised for the under 16s and to have so many different teams from all over Rochdale was a breath taking experience. We had over 150 youths participating and taking part in a positive structured event".

The tournament itself was structured in the same way as the Champions league with group stages and then the top 2 to go into the quarter finals.

The group stages were tense as each team knew how vital it was to get points on the table.

A few shocks were always expected and the spring tournament winners Anti Racism lost their fist game against Lil Eagles from Freehold. Then in the same table Lil Eagles although knowing they had qualified lost to Barca Kids 1-0.

Some of the expected teams had qualified to quarter finals and a surprise to themselves Brazil had also qualified.

So it was DX vs. Anti Racism, it was tactical and with DX having the home advantage won quite comfortably 2-0.

Lil Eagles Vs Brazil, Lil eagles had eased through the group stages and were full of confidence. In the game Lil eagles created some good chances but didn't score. Adil (Brazil) smashed a left foot drive which was unstoppable into the bottom left corner which took Brazil to the Semis.

Barca Jrs Vs FCUK, was a local derby with each team knowing each others strategy. The game was exciting as both teams were playing fluent football but the strong Barca team went through 2-1.

Deepy All Stars Vs Killers, this was the tie to watch as both teams were strong and had played some tantalizing football. It was a more physical game and the dead lock could not be broken so it went into penalties. Deepy All Star keeper Gabar, looked to have got his team into the semis with a wonderful low diving save, but nerves got to the All Stars who missed the vital chance which enabled Killers from Newbold into the semi finals.

Semi final stage and the crowd gathered round with over 100 youths watching from around the arena all supportive of each other and really well behaved.

DX Vs Brazil, Brazil started nervously as they seemed overawed by the crowd who were chanting at every pass. DX took control and went through quite easily winning 3-1 with a cracker from Zacker, played a great one two with Qasim whose pass split the defense and Zacker finished in style.