We arrived at Caterham with our players looking very smart in the Carshalton colours.  We assembled to be told the teams we would be playing in our section. Several were from the Epsom and Ewell League and one side from the West Surrey Youth League Premier Elite Division. This was going to be a good test for us to set our standard for the season and see how the players performed together - especially as some of the boys were trying new positions and some had only been with the Club a short time.

We knew it was crucial to get a good start and we had one of the strongest sides to play against first - Stoneleigh A.  They were runners up in their league last season.  Stoneleigh scored first and we scored a late equaliser from Daniel for us to draw the game 1-1.

Our second game against Ashtead Colts was a 0-0 draw with us being the more dominant side.  This made us believe we could go on and win this tournament.  Ashtead are in the Premier Elite Division of the WSYL and were favourites to win.

The third game (and already running an hour late!) was against the hosts – Caterham Pumas. We brushed them aside with a 3-1 win. Scorers – Joe (2), Reece.

Fourth up was Epsom Dynamos – another 3-1 win and we were gaining in confidence with every game.  Scorers – Tommy, Luke, Reece.

With results going in our favour, we had to win our last game to make sure that we applied the pressure on Ashtead Colts.  They were following our game needing to win and score more than two goals to beat us on goal difference.  Our last game of this tournament was against Stoneleigh B, who had actually outperformed their A side.  They had drawn with Ashtead in their first game 1-1.  We knew this was going to be a hard game and we needed our best players to perform well to achieve the result we needed.  We started very well, scoring in the first few minutes from a very good move.  We followed this a few minutes later with another brilliant move, resulting in a goal.  2-0 up at half time. In the second half, we made ourselves hard to breakdown and had several other opportunities to increase our lead.  Stoneleigh were unable to cause our goalkeeper (Rhyse), who performed very well throughout all our games, any problems.  We therefore completed our fixtures with a 2-0 win - Scorers – Luke, Reece.

Now the pressure was really on Ashtead to win their game and score the required goals that they needed.  Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us the game was a 1-1 draw.  We had shown what we can do in this tournament and now we need to take this forward into our first season in the WSYL Premier North Division.

Final tournament positions –
1st Carshalton FC
2nd Ashtead Colts

We would like to congratulate the lads for their achievement in this tournament and look forward to the new season.