Mid-season update

I’d guess we’re about halfway through the 4th season in Saunders and things have gone pretty well so far. Beaulieu FC are still in the running for most of the major competitions, which is a nice change considering our usual tendency for early exists (despite usually getting incredibly tough early fixtures in knockout competitions).

The Premiership has gone very well, indeed. I avoided playing matches for the first week or so while the one man win-machine that is Dani Alves was injured. Since then we’ve gone from strength to strength, with a record of 11W, 2D 1L from the first 14 games. This puts us 1 point and 1 game ahead of surprise contenders Eagle Warriors and is especially impressive considering Caceres picked up a 5 match suspension.

Eagle Warriors goals have mostly come from the immense, towering, Brazilian striker Jo. However, a former fans favourite is running the midfield in the form of Leandro Lima. An initial pick for the Beaulieu FC squad, the Brazilian maestro switched allegiances shortly after the second season had begun, after an immense first season, for a hefty fee. He’s gone from strength to strength in the mean time and is really powering their title charge.

The Premiership Cup – a competition open to all members of the premiership – has gone well too. A record of 6 wins and 2 losses from our group stage saw Beaulieu FC easily qualify for the quarter finals with an impressive 18 points, where other top sides, such as Toon Town and AFC Carpathia, fell short. Hopeful of a good draw, this could be the first cup competition our side has managed to win.

The All Evening Cup has also gone well, despite only squeezing through on penalties in the second round after Dani Alves got himself sent off. The third round is due to be played this evening, another tough draw in the form of Huntstown Villa, with Workshop Wednesday awaiting the winners.

The Gold Cup - the FML equivalent of the Champions League – has also seen some good results for the Blues. We were dawn in a tough group alongside 3 other top 50 teams (including the worlds’ #1 youth side), but being a consistent member of the top 5 ensured that we were always likely to progress. A record of 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss (conceded when both Dani Alves and Nelson were injured) was enough to see us through to the last 16.

Here we were drawn against the impressive Toronto FC – home of Saviet, Walcott, Danny and Modric. Fortunately, the latter two were injured for both legs of the tie, tipping the odds in our favour. Beaulieu FC managed an impressive 3-0 home leg victory, but looked to be crashing out when down 4-0 at half time in the second leg. Issiati stepped up to the plate and scored a crashing strike in off the post, before winning a free kick which Pernia converted, leaving the final score 4-2 to Toronto FC, 5-4 to the Blues on aggregate. With many great sides left in the competition, nothing can be taken for granted, but I’m glad to have made it to the quarter finals – the furthest I’ve made it in any UFFA competition so far.

As previously outlined, the youth competitions have seen a marked improvement over last season. A period of mixed results has seen us slip down the projected final positions, but we’re still comfortably mid-table at both U19 and U21. Qualification from the AE Youth Cup and World Youth Cup has also been achieved, although tough draws will probably see Beaulieu FC’s involvement end here. Never-the-less, it’s an impressive turn around for a side who scraped to finish 18th in the AEFA U21’s last season. With the youngsters generally being 19 or under, they’ve still got a couple of years left at this level in which to improve and I’m hopeful 3 or 4 of them might have the required potential to make the step up to the first team in the coming seasons.

There’s still a long way to go and a lot of good sides left in the running in all the competitions, but Beaulieu FC are still in with a shout for all of them, and you gotta be in it to win it!