Colombians dig deep to seal astonishing victory

IT WAS an astonishing weekend for Investec Colombians. They may be the current Guernsey champions and 'Upton' holders but with seven first-team players missing, odds were against them adding the Investec Channel Islands Club Championship to their honours list.

The Sarnians still managed to make it through to the final fairly comfortably, but then to trail four times in that encounter with OV Convicts before finally snatching it 5-4 was a truly remarkable achievement.

'It has been an amazing year for us. We have won the first division, the second division and the Upton and this has capped it off very nicely,' said Colombians' Ollie Goddard.

'We thought we would do well but, being seven first-team players short, we knew we would have to play out of our skins to win it.'

Colombians began their campaign with a 2-1 win over JHC Gobis in a tight game that acted as a 'nice warm-up' for the rest of the tournament, according to Goddard.

They followed it up with a more comfortable victory over JHC Ormers to finish the group stage.

The next morning threw up an all-Guernsey semi-final clash with Tigers and, although it proved to be a passionate affair, it resulted in a surprisingly comfortable 4-0 scoreline.

'Both sides wanted to win a lot but they did not play as well as they can.

'For the last 20 minutes, we were resting players, which is something I did not expect to be able to do against Tigers,' said Goddard.

'Because we have got a winning formula, we are going into each game with the same approach and really mixing it up with long and short passing.

'But I think they changed their game plan. They sat back and played defensively, which is unusual for them, and it did not quite work.'

Tigers' Mark Babbe felt that fitness played a large part in the result.

'They are younger and fitter than our average player and that obviously showed in the match - they were pretty fresh whereas, if we had won, I am not sure that we would have had another game in us,' he said.

'It was a very open game, mainly because it was the third of the weekend, and they had opportunities that they took.

The final turned out to be a classic, with Colombians' strength of character seeing them home against Convicts. Their goals came from Adam Kitching (two), Chris Gill, TJ Ozanne and Tristan Cairns.

'For the neutrals, it was great - there were lots of goals and fast-flowing hockey. But for those of us involved, it was nerve-racking,' Goddard said.

'They took the lead four times and we managed to level things every time - it was 2-2 after only 15 minutes. We finally managed to go in front with about 20 minutes left and then hold the lead.

'In the last five minutes we had to dig in. We had the forwards back helping the defence and a lot of our guys were really tired by then because OVs had had more time to recover from their semi-final.

'They are a top-quality side and had all of their star players. They had frightening pace and skills but maybe we wanted it more on the day,' he added.

Goddard was full of praise for the whole squad and pointed in particular to those who had replaced the missing first-teamers.

'If we did not have a really good second team, we would not have won it.

'Our usual forward for the seconds, Chris Colmer, played left half all weekend and did a great job, while Matt Butterfield, Alex Cleal and Andy Ewing had to step in at various times and all of them did well.

'They are working really hard and playing in that competition will benefit their game,' said Goddard.

Despite now being in possession of three major trophies, Colombians remain hungry for more success and are looking to claim the one prize that eluded them in 2002/3.

'We lost in the cup last season, so we would like to win that and hold all the trophies at the same time. That would look good on the mantelpiece,' said Goddard.