Nationals Review | C team taste National Glory

Written by club volunteer, Leon Higgins.

After a strong cup campaign coming into Nationals, the C’s claimed the crown jewel of the season by being National champions after beating Nottingham Mavericks D 2-1 in Sunday’s BUIHA Non-Checking Tier 2 Gold final.

The opening game of the group stage saw the Metro’s claim victory over the Cardiff Redhawks after goals from Alexander Grob and a short handed goal from Oliver Taylor. Half hour later the Metro’s would claim another 2-0 victory this time against Birmingham Lions. Both goals were unassisted with Alexander Grob scoring once again and Tayler Wilson Dickson also on the score sheet to secure back to back victories for the C’s. The Metro’s next game proved to be a much tighter affair against hosts and favourites Sheffield Bears D with Ollie Taylor’s unassisted goal with 38 seconds left on the clock proved enough to seal a third victory of the day. To conclude day one the Metro’s were on the other side of tight encounters losing 1-0 to both Imperial Devils and Nottingham Mavericks D.

With one group game left on Day 2 and finals day the Metro’s got off the perfect start by beating Hull Ice Hogs B 4-0. Oliver Taylor and Alexander Grob with their third goals of the group stage as well as Joel George and John McSwiggan saw the Metro’s finish 3rd in Group 1 and make the Gold quarter finals.

The Metro’s started off the play offs by playing Sheffield Bears E who finished 2nd in Group 2. In another tight encounter it was Joel George’s shootout goal that sent the Metro’s into the Semi Finals to keep their National gold title hopes alive. And coincidentally it was Sheffield again in the Semi Finals but this time the D team who the Metro’s had beat 1-0 in the group stages. Goals from Ollie Taylor, Joel George and Alexander Grob saw the C’s make into the Gold final.

The Metro’s made a great start to the final after just one minute with Oliver Taylor linking up with John McSwiggan. In a tight final the Metros doubled their lead in the 9th minute with Ollie Taylor rounding off a brilliant tournament by putting one hand on the National trophy for the Metro’s. The Mavericks continued to battle and got their reward in the 17th minute when Daniel Kong linked up with David Smith to give Nottingham hope with two and half minutes left on the clock. Ultimately it was the Metro’s who hang on to taste National glory and defy the odds with an outstanding defensive record of only conceding 3 goals the whole weekend to win the BUIHA Non-Checking Tier 2 title.

Group 1 Final Table:

Sheffield Bears D - 5-0-1 - 10 Points

Nottingham Mavericks D - 5-0-1 - 10 Points

Manchester Metros C - 4-0-2 - 8 Points

Imperial Devils B - 3-1-2 - 7 Points

Birmingham Lions C - 2-1-3 - 5 Points

Cardiff Redhawks B - 1-0-5 - 2 Points

Hull Ice Hogs B - 0-0-6 - 0 Points

Metro’s Gamesheet:

Cardiff Redhawks B 0-2 Metros

04:47 - Alexander Grob (Xavier Meng)

12:44 - Oliver Taylor (Short Handed) (Harvey Stone)

Birmingham Lions C 0-2 Metros

11:47 - Alexander Grob

14:47 - Tayler Wilson - Dickson

Metros 1-0 Sheffield Bears D

14:22 - Oliver Taylor

Imperial Devils B 1-0 Metros

06:45 - Alex Golovshchinskii

Metros 0-1 Nottingham Mavericks D

06:42 - David Smith

Metros 4-0 Hull Ice Hogs B

05:22 - Oliver Taylor

09:04 - Alexander Grob

11:43 - Joel George

14:09 - John McSwiggan (Karam Al-Dulayymi)

Gold Play Offs:

QF - Nottingham Mavericks 4-2 UCL Yetis B

QF - Sheffield Bears E 0-1 Metros

SF - Hull Ice Hogs 1-2 Nottingham D

SF - Sheffield Bears D 0-3 Metros

09:22 - Oliver Taylor

11:06 - Alexander Grob (John McSwiggan)

14:49 - Joel George

Silver Final - Imperial Devils B 1-0 Southampton Spitfires C

Gold Final - Metros 2-1 Nottingham Mavericks D

01:00 - John McSwiggan (Oliver Taylor)

09:40 - Oliver Taylor

17:32 - David Smith (Daniel Kong) MAVERICKS