Host side Canaries came through a tough tussle againsts former winners to retain this year’s Abdul Charity Cup.

The tenth year of the tournament featured teams from Scunthorpe, Rochdale, Bolton and Blackburn.

The group stages saw the usual teams progress to the knockout stages with Canaries FC and Santos the only teams going through with a 100% record.

In the last 16 Bolton Asians were surprisingly beaten by Darwen Youth, but strong favourites Canaries and Santos progressed with ease.

In the quarter-final Preston FC and Canaries FC disposed of Deepdale B and Darwen Youth with single goals. Canaries Legends and Santos won on penalty shoot outs against Althom Rangers and Sona respectively.

The first semi final between Canaries FC and Santos will be remembered for what happened off the pitch rather than on it.

Santos having conceded a couple of free kicks for unfairly holding players did not learn and on the third occasion made the same mistake at the expense of a penalty.

At this point Santos were so incensed with the decision that they threatened to walk off (and some did).

The unsporting behaviour by Santos led to a long delay.

When the match finally resumed Jav Mohammed converted the penalty to make it 1-0. Saj Kalang made it two. This was followed quickly by Junaid Moosa being sent off for foul language.

Before the final whistle there was enough time for Jav Mohammed to receive a straight red for violent conduct and Aamir Toorawa to score a third Canaries goal.

The second semi final saw Canaries Legends against Preston FC.

It was befitting that in the tenth year of the tournament many close friends of the late Abdul Valli participated for Canaries Legends and played their matches in the spirit of the tournament.

With the match nearing its end an unfortunate injury to Asif Patel led to him being taken to hopsital in an ambulance.

When the match resumed there was one more chance for Preston FC which was missed from close range.

Preston FC scored all three penalties to win the match.

The final was always going to be difficult for Preston FC and so it proved. Within the first few minutes Saj Kalang, of Canaries, found plenty of space to score from close range.

Adil Vohra, of Preston FC, headed over the bar and followed up with hitting the crossbar from close range.

A quick free kick by Suleman Hafeji to Aamir Toorawa who beautifully slotted the ball past keeper Javed Bodi to make it 2-0.

This was followed with a further two Canaries goals from Mushy and another by Aamir.

The Asian Image Player of Tournament was: Asfan Khan (Preston FC); Asian Image Goalkeeper of Tournament was: Mehbub Member (Santos) On a personal level I would like to thank to my friend Junaid Kalang. Junaid has worked tirelessly throughout the 10 years in organising this fantastic tournament for our friend Abdul Valli who tragically died in 2000.

The tournament has raised over £10,000.