[quote name=’Dervock’ post=’672300′ date=’Sep 5 2010, 11:47 AM’]Nice to see I was missed! :whistling:[/quote]
Anyway as a NISC nomad I decided to turn up at the Sydney NISC day out and international cup of nations tournament held at Wentworth Park in Sydney. It was a crackin wee day out, with two groups, each of four teams, playing each other once in the group stages over a 25 minute match, with one referee but no linesmen.
The venue, Wentworth Park (Ultima) very close to Sydney Central
The train station at Parramatta, getting there:
The main stand:
GROUP A
GROUP B
Northern Ireland team were basically Sydney NISC and wore an excellent custom made dark green tap with the class Sydney NISC badge on it – kangaroo and emu.
It was all very well organised, the NI team had a brave few subs and a few of the kids came along as well as a couple of spouses. I was literally the only random to turn up. Great bunch of lads.
In the other opening group match, the Republic of Ireland beat host nation Australia 4-1, a comfortable win, some of the Irish lads were about 6 foot 5! Had a wee bit of banter with them and they were good lads actually, though I later found out one of their players used te play for Derry City, which in theory means he shouldve played for us.
To ensure the colours didnt clash the republic wore lime green shirts. The other group had less goals, with the first four matches all being 1-0 margins.
The Norn Iron lads relax in between matches.
The Scotland team bow out…
Gordon Strachan’s granda goes off.
And even Gary McAllister couldnt save Scotland.
The Brazil team, played in red as not all of them had yellow and most of them played locally for a club who wore the red kit so they just used that kit…
The final scoreline of 2-1 flattered Australia – we had two goals disallowed, one for offside, and this free kick – which went in and was disallowed for being indirect and we fired it in.
This set up the crucial last match and the battle against the old enemy, Republic of Ireland. If we won, then both Ireland teams would progress till the semis.
In the meantime Australia and Scotland had been knocked out.
Northern Ireland attack against the enemy.
As good as we were in possession, we failed to create and the Republic gave us a battering 3-0 – they were a good wee side and went on to win the trophy – beating the Germans 1-0 in the final.
From the battle of Sydney, the Norn Iron captain (Luke from Coleraine, I believe) says “Oi ref theyre fielding an ex-Derry City man – he should be in our side”
It was a good display by the Northern Ireland boys and in reality we should have won the first two matches, but had to settle for 3 points and third spot in the group.
More action from the Northern Ireland 2-1 Australia match.
One of the organisers – Spencer Prior, ex of Man City and Southend. Great to randomly meet another celebrity!
A great day out – a fantastic wee club they have down here in Sydney and looking forward to meeting up again and watching the Italy match with the lads.
ACTION FROM NORTHERN IRELAND V AUSTRALIA:
ACTION FROM NORTHERN IRELAND V REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:
ACTION FROM REPUBLIC OF IRELAND V AUSTRALIA: