Well this is the last blog of 2018-19, so thanks to everyone who's bothered to read this and any other of my rubbish over the last few months. As per usual there is happiness, pain, tears and joy as we come to the end of yet another eventfull season at Fortress Imperial by the Banks of the mighty Wandle. It's never boring being a Terror.... It might not be fun all the time but it's always interesting.
Three years to the day that the mighty Toots lifted the London Senior Cup after beating Hendon. Tooting and Mitcham were crowned the first ever winners of the Tooting Cup after an entertaining game against our new lodgers Tooting Bec FC. In the first game between the two clubs, the Terrors ran out 4-2 winners. A good work out before the Surrey Cup Final and hopefully the start of a good healthy rivalry. The Bec have grown from strength to strength and are a team and set up worth keeping an eye on. But dear reader it was to end in tears.
The Surrey Senior Cup Final ended as a two nil defeat to Met Police in a game we never really got going in. The last time we played them was the "must win" game at the end of the 2017-18 season which we needed to win to stand any chance of staying up and we went 1-0 down after 43 seconds. At least we showed an improvement as we keep it goaless for the first minute. A couple of defensive balls ups gave Plod two goals in the first half and in truth if we were still playing now we'd still not have scored. Seen a video of the first goal on Twitter taken from behind the goal and it is almost (almost) funny, a long range shot which bounced over the keeper as he dived down to collect the shot. Both of the goals seemed to knock the stuffing out of everyone and personally I knew the writting was on the wall at half time. Lots of vocal and a few really pissed travelling Terrors made the short trip down the A24 to Dorkings new stadium and the home to Surrey FA sang their hearts out for 90 minutes but it was not to be our night.
Plod had played a number of their youth players due to them playing in their divisional play offs the day before. But remember how many of our players are under 23 if you are reading this from a non Toots perspective. They defended well and shut us down effectively. Met Police have always had a good set up and youth system, Their under 18's also reached a final and I think too many of the travelling Toots under estimated Plod thinking that the game was already in the bag. Can't really complain about the outcome. I will however complain about the Surrey FA and the rubbish programme for the match which must have been knocked up by one of the local inbred morris dancers who inhabit Dorking with more mistakes in it than our defence from the 2017 -18 season. I've been told by several people that the Surrey FA hate TMUFC even more than Mishi does so they must have been absolutely delighted with the result.... Just as Mishi was. Plods goalie was rather happy as well, I supose being accussed of being a freemason who likes truncheons up his bum touched a nerve. Really hope Met Police win their play off final against Tonbridge Angels and get promoted so we never have to worry about playing them again or their huge travelling support which seemed to be made up of their playing squad and five or so Daily Mail readers ever again.
Cheers to our players and staff who came up to thank the fans after the game. It was good to say a proper good bye to Isiah and wish him all the best. What a great player.
Down but not out
The under 23s won their Champions Play Off Final against Bowers & Pitsea 5-2 which really is the perfect way to end this season after winning the league in such style. I'm sure we'll see a lot more from them shortly.
To end up in a cup final and just outside the play off places with a successful youth set up must be seen as major positive to build on for next year after the relegation of last season and how low moral was over at Toots. Things have really changed and a lot of people deserve a big pat on the back for the hard work and belief they have shown in this great club.
Elvis has left the building
A Liverpool v Tottenham Champions League final will have a big impact on a number of our regulars. Expect a punch up between Mrs H and Dave Irons at some point soon.
Got one more game planned for this year with the Non League trophy thingy at Wembley, but after that it's trips to Sainsburys and Asda on Saturdays. I know a lot of you are into Cricket but I've never been a fan of watching men tampering with their balls. I'll be crawling up the walls soon waiting for the pre season to start.
Cheers to everyone who's read any of these blogs and cheers to all that follow me on Twitter x
Up The Stripes !!!!!
