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Winning captain Amin Patel with Irfan Patel (left) and Mohammed Ali Nakhuda (right) of Nakapa Travel

Deepdale LA Coruna proved too hot to handle in this year's Youth is our Goal' 5-a-side football tournament held at Play Football in Preston.

The tournament attracted 16 teams with the final being contested between Deepdale La Caruna and JER Bubble. The match was totally dominated by La Caruna in which Tufayl and Aamir did the damage to hand La Coruna two tournament wins within a week.

Player of the Tournament: Naeem Bashir (Deepdale All Stars); Goal of the Tournament: Habib Ismail (JER Bubble 2); Goalkeeper Awardt: Faisal Ali (Los Galacticos).

Big thanks to: Tile Mart, participating teams, supporters, volunteers, referees, Hajis Cash & Carry (Rochdale), Nakapa Travel, Anis Faruki (Preston Muslim Forum), Youth in Action, Royal Piri Piri. In association with Canaries FC.

FULL REPORT: The second year of the Youth Weekend' culminated with the usual Youth is our Goal' 5-a-side football tournament held at Play Football in Preston.

This years tournament included four groups of four teams with the top two teams of each group qualifying for the quarter finals.

Group A included previous year winners and tournament favourites Deepdale La Caruna.

As usual Deepdale La Caruna breezed passed their group opponents with three wins from three whilst averaging more than four goals per match.

FC Elite managed a credible second by winning two of their three matches including a closely contested match with bottom placed Payce FC.

Group B comprised of JER Bubble 1, Fishwick Rangers, Los Galacticos and Young Gunz.

JER Bubble 1 progressed easily into the next round with three comfortable wins and maximum points. In contrast Fishwick Rangers made hard work and only progressed with an inspired performance by Idris Ugradar helping them win their last group match against nearest rivals Los Galacticos. Goalkeeper Faisal Ali of Los Galacticos made some fantastic saves throughout the group matches by playing as the last line of defence for his team on numerous occasions and was recipient of Goalkeeper of the Tournament Award'.

Group C was convincingly won by Deepdale All Stars who did not concede any goals in achieving maximum points and were led brilliantly by Naeem Bashir who received three man of the match nominations and was subsequently recognised for his overall contribution by being named Player of the Tournament'.

Fishwick was the other team to progress from Group C with two wins and six points.

The A Team struggled and did not live up to their namesake and popular television programme of the 1980's by managing just a single win and being eliminated from the tournament at the group stage.

Group D was the most contested of all the groups with no team achieving maximum wins.

Deepdale La Caruna Youths were shocked and only managed a goalless draw in their opening match against Real Deepdale who only achieved one point. Where as JER Bubble 2 got off to a flier by winning their first two matches.

It went to the last match to decide group D winners and Deepdale Lacaruna Youths inspired by 'Man of the Match' performance by Sohal Ali eventually won 2-0 against JER Bubble 2 and subsequently finished top of group D.

Quarter Finals As with the group stages the quarter finals were very straight froward.

Deepdale Lacaruna won comfortably 5-1 against Fishwick Rangers with two goals from Aamir Toorawah and a hat-rick from Man of the Match' Tufayl Patel who controlled the match superbly to such an extend that Fishwick were struggling to keep their discipline.

If Tufayl can continue to develop and provide such mature performances then he could be one to keep an eye out for with Canaries FC in the 11 a side Lancashire Evening Post Sunday League.

JER Bubble 1 courtesy of two goals from Siddiq Vali and one from Talha Batan won easily against FC Elite and namesake JER Bubble 2 had an even more convincing win with goals from Habib Ismail (2) and Luckman Saiyed.

The fourth match of the quarter finals between Deepdale La Caruna Youths and Fishwick was the most closely matched of all the quarter finals.

A Man of the Match' performance from Mohammad Lulat and a hatrick from Hasan Yusuf (Heskey) helped La Caruna Youths only just edge pass Fishwick with a 3-2 win.

Semi Finals.

The first semi final was contested between Deepdale La Caruna and JER Bubble 2.

Within a minute Aamir Toorawa was put clean through and provided the advantage to La Caruna. Once again Aamir was put through and with only the keeper to beat he managed to hit the post.

With 3 minutes on the clock Zubair Chabbu robbed the ball from a Bubble player and hit a beautiful shot to leave the keeper stranded and make it 2-0. At this stage it was simply a question of how many La Caruna wanted to score.

With the match looking to be over Habib Ismail had other things on his mind and hit a powerful shot from inside his own half into the keepers top right corner for what turned out to be the Goal of the Tournament'.

Once again it was Habib who scored another goal to make it level at the half way stage.

With Bubble busy celebrating they lost concentration and La Caruna restored their lead immediately from the kick off with a simple goal from Tufayl. With time running out Sohail Munir better known as 'Poli' counter attacked and rounded keeper to make it 4-2 to La Caruna and progression into the final.

The second semi final was contested between JER Bubble 1 and Deepdale La Caruna Youths. If the first semi final was played free flowing attractive football then the second failed to live up to the same standards.

After an initial goal by Siddiq Vali for Bubble it was very quickly cancelled by a goal from a free kick by Suhail Leli for La Caruna Youths. After this the match was like watching paint dry with both teams cancelling each other and restricted to long range shooting.

At full time the match ended in a draw and the customary penalty shoot out to decide which team would progress to the final. It was to be goal keeper Perwaiz Bobat of JER Bubble 1 who became the hero having saved two penalty kicks and helping his team to a 2-1 win on penalty shoot out.

Final.

In the final between Deepdale La Caruna and JER Bubble 1 it was apparent from the outset that this would be a very one sided match with the latter hoping to defend well and nick a goal on the counter attack.

But this strategy never had the opportunity to materialise as inside a minute Tufayl scored direct from a retaken free kick.

Aamir from La Caruna had a shot well saved by Perwaiz which was soon followed by a dangerous sliding tackle by Tufail on Talha Batan which in the eyes of the referee (Abdul Rauf Khan) was only worthy of a free kick.

The whole match was totally dominated by La Caruna with attack after attack and Bubble struggled throughout and could not even muster a strike on goal.

It was only a matter of time before another goal by La Caruna which came from a beautifully weighted free kick pass from Tufail to Aamir who slotted pass the keeper with a right foot shot.

If Naeem Bashir was named Player of the Tournament' then Tufail who sparkled with consistently brilliant performances throughout that included controlling the pace of the matches to suit his team and scoring many goals must have come a very close second to the award.

4:50pm Wednesday 23rd April 2008

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