Hilton trip

The squad have been invited to the Hilton Hotel on Tuesday 31st March to meet some of the Northern Ireland players who are staying there at the moment.

We will leave school at 2.30pm and need to leave the hotel by 3.30pm as there is a press conference at that time.

Players should travel in full school kit (apart from boots obviously) and are welcome to bring cameras and stuff to get signed.

AFC TPS players' parents are also welcome to come along.

A big thank you to former NI international Stephen Robinson for arranging this visit for our team. It might even secure Harry a wee run out for the team next year!

onwards and upwards
Mr Alcorn
director of football
AFC TPS

St. Joseph's (Antrim) 1 AFC TPS 4

St. Joseph's (Antrim) 1 AFC TPS 4
(Graeme 2, Gerard, Michael)

And so the 11 a side league season is wrapped up with another win. Now the waiting begins to see if 6 wins out of 7 will be enough to give us the league title, after three years in succession of being runners up!

The match got off to the worst possible start for AFC TPS as they conceded within the first minute to a quick break and a smart finish from St. Joseph's.

AFC TPS had experience of being in this position earlier in the season after turning a half time 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 victory. This, along with the knowledge that nothing less than a win would do was enough to spur our team on and the equaliser came quickly after a super finish back acoss the goalkeeper from Graeme. Gerard and Michael then began to show their class with some excellent tackles, passes and runs, resulting in Gerard giving us the lead shortly before half time. There was time for Michael to add another before the break, as he curled a corner directly in for a 3-1 lead.

AFC TPS came out for the second half hoping to add to their goal difference and Luke and Daniel were unfortunate with several efforts throughout the half. In fact we only added 1 more goal, Graeme slotting home from a narrow angle near the end. Dean pulled off two superb saves to stop St. Joseph's getting back into the game and the match ended with a 4-1 win.

This gives AFC TPS a total of 18 points out of a possible 21, and we now rely on Antrim Primary School's results. As they were the only team to beat us, they are the only team who can finish above us. They have had one draw so far, winning all their other matches. They will be in for some tough games, as we have had to battle for many of the points we have gained, so all we can do is wait and hope!

I will post as soon as I have any further news!

Player of the match for this game is tough to call again - not quite as many outstanding performances as recently. Philip and Andrew were solid and disciplined in defence, Graeme revelled in his new midfield role, Gerard and Michael again contributed all over the pitch and both scored important goals, Luke made quite an impression when he came on at half time and the rest of the squad all played their part too. In the end, the award goes to Dean for those two saves that were quite astonishing and utterly vital.

Here's the stats ...

11 a side league
P7 W6 D0 L1 F32 A8 pts 18 GD +24

11 a side friendlies
P2 W1 D0 L1 F6 A6 pts 3

7 a side friendlies
P2 W1 D1 L0 F4 A2 pts 4

5 a side tournaments
P5 W3 D0 L2 F17 A6 Pts 9

overall
P16 W11 D1 L4 F59 A22 pts 34

goal scorers
Daniel 15
Michael 13
Gerard 11
Adam 6
Philip 6
Johnny 3
Graeme 2
Luke S 2
Ross 1

player of the match
Gerard 5
Michael 3
Dean 2
Philip 2
Andrew 1
Johnny 1
Luke B 1
Daniel 1
Adam 1

Onwards and upwards

Mr Alcorn
director of football
AFC TPS