On Friday we played Alliance and won 2 – 0 with both goals scored by Tim Lorimer. In the second game we lost 1 – 0 to the Dutch Lions due to a very spurious goal decision. Saturday started with another Dutch team WF and we won 1 - 0, again with a goal from Tim lorimer . Lunchtime we played the German team and lost 1 - 0, again due to another spurious goal decision where the referee failed to see a German player using his foot to stop the ball prior to the goal being scored. Finally on Saturday we played England LX and drew with them 0 - 0. Sunday started with Thistles again playing Dutch team WF winning 2 nil with goals from Tim lorimer and Brian de Matio. Finally we played Alliance again, winning 2 - 0, with goals again by Tim Lorimer . In the final placings we ended up a very creditable third on equal points with the Dutch who were second, but because of a superior goal difference managed to edge Thistles out of the silver medal place.
Several really good things came together to make this a very memorable trip for the Thistles M70’s team. The captain, vice-captain and Trish the match manager were absolutely excellent. The warm-ups and cool downs were very well done by Ernie B.D using Thi Chi techniques, showing the opposition that we were all potential ninjas. The match organisation was first class and the competition was really good. Some of the teams were in fact the national age teams, using this competition as a practice for future major events which made the standard of play very high. Finally the Thistles team was well balanced with an excellent goalkeeper in Paul Finch. Special thanks also to Ian McCreath for his organisational skills which enabled 4 Thistle teams to attend this hugely popular event. The only real negative was the absence of Old Father Abraham's Mike Macinally. We all toasted him well at the tournament meal and hoped very much to see Mike back again. All I can say is slange to all concerned.
