Winter Warmer 2023

Tournament Report by Mick "The Ammer" Milne

Venue: Ganger Farm Sports Complex, Romsey 

Festive cheer was in abundance as the men, women, boys and girls of AFC Foresters gathered at Ganger Farm for their third annual Winter Warmer.  54 players  formed six teams as the rain held off just long enough to complete the twenty game tournament.

Remotes were left on armchairs and quality streets in the tin as an afternoon of football saw the excesses of the festive season burned off to see who would be this year's stars of wonder. 

The tournament consisted of a round robin of six teams followed by knock out final stages which ran smoother than the Christmas Baileys thanks to a tireless team of Santa's little helpers. 

The group stages were tight with just two points separating the top three. The games were well fought with all teams achieving points.  It was great to see Forester's co founder Ian Thompson bag a brace within minutes of relaunching his playing career after a long break through injury. 

Bourne United topped the tree after the round robin stage closely followed by Forham Peacocks and the Wellow Coaches.  In a commendable fourth place were the Wellow Poppies with four Foresters under 16s in their line up. Fifth place were Tottencov Saints who pipped Wellow Saints by just one point. 

And so to the play off games:  positions remained unchanged following the 5th and 6th play off with the evergreen Tottencov overcoming the spirited Wellow Saints 2:0 in a reduced sided game.

The semi finals were both tight affairs.   A long range Christmas cracker from Matt Thompson winning the game for Forham against Wellow Coaches whereas Bourne Utd overcame the Wellow Poppies 3:0 spearheaded by Dave Floyd on the way to becoming Christmas Number One as the tournament's top scorer.

In the third place play off, peace on earth reigned in the Wellow derby as the Coaches  were unable to drive through the Poppies, but ultimately prevailed on penalties. 

The final started as a feisty affair with very little goodwill to all men or women on show.  However referee Saunders brought it under control for a tightly fought game to be played out. Bourne United valiantly battled with their walking wounded giving all for the cause  against a youthful midfield strutting their stuff for the Forham Peacocks. But the Peacocks couldn't break the Bourne identity thanks to resolute defence martialled by Captain Rob Clark .  Likewise Bourne couldn't find a way through the Peacocks and anything down the middle was returned by the trusty head of Simon Unwin. 

It ended as a tight but eventful nil nil and so to penalties:  with darkness drawing in, the first three penalties were saved before "Mr Foresters" Dave Venditti, made it one nil to the Forham Peacocks.. Darren Ottley then calmly sent the Forham keeper the wrong way to level the scores: one all with one penalty remaining...  Up stepped Captain Unwin, to win the tournament for Forham.

And so the Christmas bells rang out for the Forham Peacocks but there were no clanging chimes of doom at the Green Dragon where a celebration party of over seventy went on well into a far from silent night.

The event showed both the strength and the progress of AFC Foresters and culminated a fine year.  A bright 2024 is on the cards ! 

The winning Forham Peacocks:

Simon Unwin 

Ben 

Christian Roberts

David Venditti

Harry Pollard

Ian Thompson

Kyle Milne

Lily Roberts

Matt Thompson

Mick Milne