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This
page gives an insight into the history of our team
so far. From putting the team together, to how our
first season went - and everything else up to where
we are now. Here's hoping there's many more success
stories to be added to this page over the coming
years.
Club
Creation
The
idea of creating a 6-a-side team, came about through
Adam Davy in late October
2009. After receiving positive responses from a
number of friends, the final group of 8 players
was put together in time for the start of the season
in mid-November. The squad consisted of:
As
the founder of the team, Adam
obviously took on the role of team manager, and
he appointed Danny Rodgers
as his assistant to take care of things if he was
ever unavailable.
With
only a short length of time between the side being
set up and the season starting, a team name had
to be chosen relatively quickly. Everyone agreed
on the suggestion put forward by Danny,
and INTER ME GRAN were formed.
Top
Season
1 - League Campaign
The
Tuesday Night League was split into two divisions
of 8 teams each, and Inter Me Gran were put into
the second league (Div 1) as we were a newly formed
team.
Our
debut season however, began slowly, with a disappointing
4-1 loss against Unknown in the first game. The
following 5 league games also only resulted in
4 draws and another loss. This steady start was
not suprising however, as despite posessing a
number of talented players, they had never all
played together before and some didn't know each
other at first.
The
side's first league victory eventually came at
the beginning of February, with goals from Luke
and Danny sealing a
2-1 victory over The Remainders. This was followed
by a terrific 1-0 win over Peanuts; a great result
at the time considering their dominence towards
the end of the season in storming the Div 1 title.
The
middle of the season proved to be an inconsistent
one, with Lem, Neil
and Jonny all leaving,
and a vast amount of players coming in and out
of the side as a result of this.
Over
the last few months of the season though, Inter
Me Gran began to find a bit of consistency, with
Andy Page, and Joe
and Tom Poole joining
on a permanent basis. This led to us having a
generally more settled team week-in week-out,
and a run of 7 wins out of 8 games was certainly
no coincidence.
The
final game of the season saw us needing a win
against Elegant Homes to seal second place (and
promotion to the top division). But with the clock
running down and the score only at 1-1, we decided
to push all out for the winning goal. This proved
to be a mistake with us twice getting caught on
the break, and eventually losing the match 3-1.
This led to us being overtaken by the two teams
below us; Clive Owen & Co and Unknown - and
the club finished their first season in a respectable
4TH PLACE.
Season
1 - Cup Run
The
Tuesday Night Cup worked by having four groups
of 4 teams each, with the top 2 teams in each
group qualifying for the Finals Night (the last
night of the season). Inter Me Gran were drawn
alongside WMFC, Water Boys and Different Design.
This seemed like a potentially tricky group at
the time, as two of these sides played in the
top division.
The
cup campaign began well though, with a 2-1 win
over WMFC in December (also our club's first ever
win!). A draw in the next match against Water
Boys meant that we only needed one more point
in our final game to ensure qualification. Goals
from Joe and Danny
in a 2-1 victory over Different Design then saw
us seal this and also go through as group winners.
Finals
Night saw Inter Me Gran drawn against Chef United
in the Quarter Finals, a team in our division
who we had beaten twice and lost to once in the
league. Despite therefore going into the match
quite confidently, it turned out to be a nervy
start, with Rob's solo
goal proving the difference at half time. The
second half was a totally different showing though,
with us coming out and showing our class in eventually
sealing a 4-0 win.
We
then progressed to the Semi-Final, where we faced
Inter Pub, a side who had finished 4th in the
league above us. A brilliant defensive performance
and two well-taken goals saw Inter Me Gran seal
their place in the final, with a 2-0 against-the-odds
success! The game unfortunately had a low point
though, with Pooley
injuring himself badly going in for a tackle and
an ambulance having to be called. It later turned
out he had suffered a painful dislocated shoulder.
So
in our first season as a team we had made it to
the final of the Cup, where we faced our well-known
rivals Peanuts once again. The game was played
at a much slower pace than the previous league
encounters though, with both teams tired from
their tough fixtures earlier in the night. In a
match of few chances, it was us who took the lead
through a magical goal from Joe;
dribbling past his man, before somehow finding
the top corner from out near the corner flag!
A late equaliser however from Peanuts, saw the
final go straight to sudden death penalties. Their
first penalty was saved well down low by Pagey,
leaving Danny to do
what he had been doing all season - put the ball
in the back of the net! He successfully stepped
up and sent the keeper the wrong way to see Inter
Me Gran WIN THE TUESDAY NIGHT CUP!
Top
Team
Kit
The
kit colour that we chose to play in when applying
for the league was RED, with
people simply bringing their own kits from home
for each match, to begin with. However, we decided
that it would look better if we invested in a
proper kit towards the end of the first season
as we were currently a bit mis-match and didn't
look very professional or like a 'team'. The fact
that we now also had the same regular set of 7
or 8 players playing each week was a big influence
too.
We
decided to go for the old 'Denmark-style' Hummel
kits that were available from Newitts,
as they were a good price at £6-8 each and
also quite a unique design that is rarely seen
worn by other teams.
The
shirts proved to be a lucky omen after
making their debut on Finals Night of our first
season. We went on to lift the Cup that night before winning the league
title in the following two seasons.
Unfortunately,
luck seemed to go the other way for Pooley,
as after only one-and-a-half games in the new strip,
he dislocated his shoulder, had to have his shirt
cut off by the paramedic, and went on to miss the majority of the second season!
Change
of Name
After
completing our first season as INTER ME GRAN
(Inter Milan), we came to the decision that
we would change our team name before the second
season started. Despite the fact that this would
mean other teams not now knowing who we were
(from our first season success), we felt a change
was necessary as there were currently a large
number of teams with the same or similar name
to ours playing in other Football Mundial leagues.
A
number of good suggestions came up from the
lads, including Real Betis Hotpot (Real Betis),
Anderect (Anderlecht), and FC Twenty-somethings
(FC Twente) amongst others. But the most votes
went to another of Pooley's
creations, and as of our second season as a
club, we are now CFR CLUNJ (CFR
Cluj).
Top
Season
2- League Campaign
For
our second season in the Football Mundial
leagues, the format changed slightly. With
us having finished 4th last term, we expected
to start this new season playing in the second
league (Div 1), but a reshuffle meant that
both divisions were merged into one league
of 14 teams.
A
comfortable winning start against That Team,
followed by a hard-earned victory against
Inter Pub in a close encounter, saw us get
off to a great start and find ourselves second
in the league. Despite us having to play some
seemingly better teams than last season due
to the leagues mixing, our winning streak
continued with us picking up maximum points
in the first two months, and not conceding
a single goal.
In
fact, the first game we didn't pick up 3 points
in, was a 0-0 draw against Peter Thompsons
midway through the season. In a match where
defences were on top, the fact that we came
off the pitch disappointed, showed just how
far we had come as a team, as the opposition
were one of the top teams in this league.
The
next game after this, against Elvington Floorcraft,
was probably one of our best ever performances.
Individually, they were probably better than
us, posessing a number of players who were
technically very good on the ball, but by
playing as a team we managed to overcome them
2-0. It was a case of taking our chances (as
Danny did twice), and then
keeping organised and disciplined at the back
to deny them any clear chances on goal.
Then
came a defining moment in the season. We had
been playing our games at Manor School, whilst
the Huntington School pitches were being redeveloped,
but then came the news that we could no longer
go back there on Tuesday nights, and the league
would have to be moved to a Wednesday. This
resulted in some teams then having to drop
out as they were unavailable on this night.
Fortunately for CFR Clunj this included a
couple of the top teams, and with 3-0 wins
being awarded against all of those who had
folded, we then found ourselves move to the
top of the table (and clear by a number of
points).
Moving
to Wednesdays saw Luke unable
to play anymore, and so Dave
Dawson joined up as a regular player for
us. With goals from Danny
and Joe sealing a 2-0 win
against Unknown in our first game back at
Huntington, the league title was all but sealed.
Pineapple Express (a new, replacement team),
were the only ones who could mathmatically
catch us, but with them drawing one of their
final games, it was confirmed that we had
WON THE TUESDAY NIGHT LEAGUE!.
It was a remarkable achievement considering
we had only finished 4th in the second division
the season before, and an even more astonishing
fact that we HADN'T CONCEDED A GOAL
ALL SEASON!
Season
2- Cup Run
There
was also a change in format for the Tuesday
Night Cup in our second season. Rather than
4 groups of 4 like last time, it was now simply
two larger groups of 7 teams each, with the
top 4 qualifying from each. We were drawn
in Group B alongside A Star FC, Amber AFC,
Inter Pub, Old York Red Bulls, Peanuts and
That Team, a group we fancied our chances
of qualifying from.
Our
first game in defence of our cup saw us beat
Old York Red Bulls 2-0 in a fiery game that
saw some strong tackles and 2 blue cards shown.
This was followed up with another 2-0 victory,
this time against That Team, a game that saw
Seddy finally score his
first goal for us! CFR Clunj kept the winning
streak going in the cup, with a third straight
victory coming against Amber AFC in a match
settled by a late goal from Willo.
Then
came the change which saw us move to Wednesdays
back at Huntington. This meant that as A Star
FC and Inter Pub had both dropped out, we
were awarded 3-0 wins against them; good news
for us as they were probably two of the best
teams in the group. With only one game therefore
left to play, we sealed qualification with
a win over Pineapple Express, finishing the
group with maximum points and no goals conceded.
With
a few weeks to wait, and us having already
started a new season at Roko, Finals Night
came at a strange time for us. We were just
getting used to the change in style that the
PlayFootball leagues offered, but then had
to come back to Mundial for this, and it showed.
Despite having a favourable draw against Clive
Owen & Co (not one of the better sides
in the league), we struggled to get our usual
flowing game going at first. Also, with the
games shorter in length than we had played
all season (10 mins each way instead of 15),
it took us until the second half before we
really got going. Unfortunately, we were up
against probably the best goalkeeper in the
league, and despite what seemed like a personal
battle at times, Danny just
couldn't manage to find a way past him. The
game finished 0-0, and with no extra time
it then went straight to sudden death penalties.
It then somehow managed to get down to the
6th taker for each team, before we missed
the decisive penalty and were finally knocked
out 4-3. It was a massive disappointment for
us going out in the QUARTER FINALS,
as we all held high hopes of being
able to defend our cup title and do the double,
but it was not to be this time. It must also
be noted though that in our cup run we DIDN'T
CONCEDE A GOAL either.
Move
to PlayFootball leagues
With
the news coming midway through the second season
that we could no longer play Tuesday nights
at Huntington School, we had to make a decision
on what we were going to do the following season
or whether the team would have to fold. We struggled
to get a regular team on Wednesdays and so that
was ruled out as an option early on.
As
nobody really wanted the team to go under (considering
our recent successes), we made contact with
the PlayFootball leagues up at Roko Gym on Clifton
Moor. They soon after offered us a place in
one of their Tuesday night leagues, and we willingly
accepted. It was going to provide a fresh challenge
for us having won both the cup and league with
Football Mundial. Also, the pitches there have
walls and so the gameplay would be totally different
than we were used to.
Season
3
Team
Jackets
Season
4
Season
5
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