Roy Remembered

The Winners, Opal Fruits, with Ann Kenny (left) and Rochdale Online Managing Director, Pauline Journeaux (right).

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The Roy Kenny Memorial trophy reached its dramatic conclusion on Friday night as the final ten teams battled it out for bragging rights, the prize money and some shiny new silverware for the trophy cabinet.  Almost forty local five a side teams had flocked to the Milnrow Soccer Village during the week and these had been whittled down to ten during the course of four hotly contested qualifying sessions leading up to the night, with only the best local footballers remaining. 

Play kicked off at 7:30PM with two leagues of five teams playing each other on a round robin basis.  Turtles Head, Italia, Wardleworth, Rochdale St Clements and FC Milan made up Group 1 with Zion FC, RCW, Unathletico Madrid, Opal Fruits FC and Team Heni drawn in Group 2.  After an hour and a half of first class five-a-side, the group stage concluded with the first and second placed teams from Group 1 through to the semi-finals against the second and first placed teams from Group 2 respectively.

The first semi-final between Opal Fruits FC and Wardleworth was a fairly one-sided affair following the one match suspension of two key players for Wardleworth in their last league game.  After a competitive first five minutes, Opal Fruits FC broke the deadlock and ended up comfortable winners at 3 – 0.

The second semi between Unathletico Madrid and Turtles Head was closely fought.  The game stood at 3-2 to Unathletico Madrid with fifteen seconds left on the clock when the Turtles slammed in a controversial late equaliser.  Despite protests, the goal stood and Turtles Head scored a golden goal in extra time to see them into the finals.

The final was a tense battle with both Opal Fruits and Turtles Head failing to capitalise on early pressure.  Opal Fruits scored first, only to be pegged back to 1 – 1 moments later.  The game remained tight until the last two minutes when Opal Fruits bagged another and then struck on the break in the last seconds of the game as Turtles Head pressed for an equaliser to make the final score 3 – 1. 

The Roy Kenny Memorial trophy was presented in the bar after the final by representatives of the event sponsors, Rochdale Online and by Roy Kenny’s widow, Ann. Ann told Rochdale Online how appropriate it was that Roy was commemorated with a football tournament in his honour, “I thought it was wonderful and I would like to thank everyone involved and just say how privileged and honoured I was. I know Roy would have loved it and it was very appropriate and very nice indeed to have Roy remembered in this way.”      

Soccer Village Director, Bob Smith spoke after the tournament and thanked Rochdale Online for their sponsorship, “Many thanks to Rochdale Online, for your support and your presence at the event. It proved to be a real success with all the footballers who participated and a night to remember for those who came down to watch.”