Season Reviews

Season 2008-09

The Bunwer league season 2008/09 kicked off with a record participation of 18 teams, making it arguably the most attractive non federated football league in Madrid and having one of its best ever starts to the season by winning the first eight matches.

Despite only losing 5 games in the whole season we finished third behind Faustos Ondaretta and Union Selección yet still managing to bridge a gap between us and fourth to 14 points ahead of fourth place.

Nevertheless, on the day, with the whole squad available, we could consider ourselves the best team in the league. If we couldn’t go all the way, it was only because of the high rotation of players due to injuries, work and family commitments, people leaving (Jonas and Colombian Seba), etc. Whilst other teams had the luxury of repeating line ups week after week, we, in turn, did well to finish in third spot.

Our aim was to always maintain the standard of high quality football, give 100% effort and have the pride to wear a Britanicos shirt.

So, well done to all the players, even those who played 5 minutes, for their contribution to a successful season. Our wish is to keep the momentum going and who knows, we could go all the way this coming season.

Bunwer League Player of the Year: Omar Majid

Mivam League Player of the Year: Tariq Shiekh & Simon Bigwood

Bunwer League Most Sporting Player: Dave Pugh

Mivam League Player of the Year: Simon Bigwood

Bunwer League Top Goalscorer: Dave Hughes

Mivam League Top Goalscorer: Simon Bigwood

Season 2007-08

Another successful season for F.C.Britanico and this time it was the club´s second team which nearly landed the glory. This was their third season in the Bunwer League and to date the most successful .During the season they managed to occupy every position in the league except first and finally finished runners up. What a shame they lost their first three games in September.
The revival was initially sparked off by Dave Hughes with his customary bagful of goals and by Christmas they had managed to climb into a pack of teams chasing the then unbeaten leaders Banco de España. As the leaders faltered the Britanicos underlined their credentials by hammering the Banco 5-1 to establish themselves as serious title challengers.
Alas a couple of losses just after Easter halted the charge but in the run- in the team management were intent on finishing as high as possible and second position was well deserved.

The club´s first team finished mid table, a slight slip from the top 5 where they have been in the last few years. Amazingly from the turn of the year the team conceded goals in the last minutes of a number of games, the stats showing 6 last minute draws or defeats.
In the cup they again lost by one goal to the League winners Faustos.

2007-8 saw the emergence of a third Britanicos team which played in a League Cup Competition. After qualifying from a section of 6 teams, they were eliminated in the quarter finals on penalties……that good old English disease. Neil Moran was thus denied a trophy in his first season in management.

The club played many other games, friendlies, in club tournaments and matches versus visiting teams. The highlight was against the Bank of Scotland in May and the club won both games against them. There was also the club´s company 5 a side tournament won for the second time by Don´s Deli.

Perhaps with so much football during the season the Annual Mundialito proved just too much and the club lost all three matches despite a couple of close matches with Uruguay and Ivory Coast. The heavy defeat in the last game to Senegal probably suggested it was just one game too many in a long, tiring and successful season. However enjoyment and being fit are also part of the game…..just ask Gary Weir and Dave Pugh who played for all three teams this season and must have played over 100 games between them.

The club continues to move forward with all weather training facilities, permanent website and current sponsor NEXUS. It is hoped that this will continue and there is a real possibility that the third team will become reality and a special Veterans team will have more competitive matches.

Santillana League Player of the Year: Jack McKay and John Mckeon

Bunwer League Player of the Year: Mente

Third Team Player of the Year: Kevin Smale

Santillana League Most Sporting Player: Jack McKay and John Mckeon

Bunwer League Most Sporting Player: Omar Majid

Santillana League Top Goalscorer:

Bunwer League Top Goalscorer: David Hughes

Club Committee for season: Stuart Gibb, Rami Majid, Gary Weir, Rob Turner, Phil Mugford, Neil Moran.

Season 2006-07

Never was the phrase 'a game of 2 halves' more apt for the Britanicos, than season 2006/07.

The first team playing in the Santillana League were so fast out of the blocks that it wasn't till just before Xmas that they lost their first game and this a one nil defeat to the leaders Instalacion Pumo. Win it and the first team would have enjoyed a Happy Festive season at the top of the league. What a shame they went into the game without 6 of the regular players, forcing changes in personnel and positions. During the game the consistent Dan Mullarkey received a blow on the back of the head forcing another change.

By the time the first part of the season had finished the team were joint second along with Transportes Professionales, both teams keen to keep up the pressure on the leaders.

The second half started with a wonderful match and well deserved draw with Transportes leaving both clubs still well placed to challenge for the top spot. Difficult to explain but this draw seemed to serve Transportes better as they went on to hardly lose a game, while the Britanicos suffered 4 successive losses. Instead of a serious league challenge the Britanicos now faced a battle to finish in the top 3. A couple of wins against teams in 5th and 6th in the league and a draw against Pumo meant they went into the last league match knowing that if they won they would finish 3rd for the second season in a row. Unfortunately a goal conceded in the last 5 minutes against Kiosko Leon prevented this and the team had to settle for 5th position.

Contrast the start of the first team with that of the second. After 4 games not a point gained and the dream management partnership of Rami Ali and Rob Turner was on the verge of turning into a nightmare. But these 2 are nothing if not resilient and determined. Rob took himself off the front line to anchor the midfield and Rami worked tirelessly behind the scenes thinking about different formations and ensuring everyone was involved. This resulted in some weeks having players who couldn't even make the bench. It was inevitable that there would be a recovery and the first signs were there even before the return of Dave Hughes. A couple of victories before Christmas and the team could look forward to the New Year.

Enter Dave Hughes another catalyst in the upturn. 7 goals after 2 games became 13 after 5 games and so on as Dave went about breaking every Britanicos goalscoring record whichever existed and establishing a few new ones. The final tally was 42 goals in half a season. This helped the team to lose only one more league game and reach the semi final of the Bunver Cup, a one nil loss and Dave didn't score. Mind you it was not all Dave as in the final of the Consolidation Cup they played without him and walked off with the trophy, sterling performances from regulars Mike Ojo, Prince, Jack and departing American Brent Ferguson proving a solid base to victory.

At the end of the season the club represented United Kingdom in the Mundialito in Madrid . This is a tournament at a level higher than the Saturday Leagues and invariably the club comes up against some of the stronger immigrant teams. In the first game the players dropped to their knees when Chile scored with virtually the last kick of the game depriving the club of their first ever point in the competition. An indifferent performance against Morocco resulted in a 5 nil defeat before the club recovered to put 9 past Angola and a first victory in the tournament.

During the season there were a number of other matches including a win and a defeat against Paraguay the winners of the Mundialito and internal games like England v Rest of the World and Veteran Matches.

The club also held their regular Sala Inter Company Tournament at Colegio Nino Jesus near the Retiro. It was sponsored by Nexus the Human Resources for the first time. Barrie Jackson of Nexus was in attendance and presented the winners Don's Deli with the trophy. This has led to Nexus sponsoring the club for the next 2 seasons.

At the end of season dinner the annual awards went to the following:

Players of the Year
First Team: John Mckeon

Second Team: David Hughes

Most Sporting Player
First Team: Shared Marco Bos and Warwick Smith

Second Team: Paul Reidy

Club Pichichi: Dave Hughes

SPECIAL AWARD to NON BRIT: Brent Ferguson

Warwick Smith also played in the annual Santillana League Select Match and Andre Fareos was chosen to play for a Mundialito Squad of all participating countries against Real Madrid 'C'

Club Committee for season

Stuart Gibb, Rami Majid, Gary Weir, Marco Bos, Warwick Smith

Season 2005-06

This was the season when the club entered a second team in official league action. In the last few years there had been a friendly as well as a league team but now was the time to take this one step further. And so the Britanicos played in the Bunver League for the first time with home games played at El Pardo on the outskirts of Madrid.

The Bunver team got off to a slow start but soon started picking up points on a regular basis and by Christmas were closing in on mid table. In the New Year the team got stronger and stronger. It was a shame that the chain smoking Paul Musgrave had to leave at Easter, having guided the team so well. The good work was continued by Paul Heal and the team finished a very respectable seventh

.

The club´s first team also enjoyed a very successful season by finishing third. They had got off to a wonderful start with Dave Hughes blasting them into early season title challengers by scoring goals from every angle possible. However over the season it was not all Dave as they also collected a trophy for the club with least goals conceded.

 In June the club took part in the Annual Madrid Mundialito, a competition for the immigrant population. They were in the group of death along with Bolivia , Senegal and Morrocco all countries with a large population in Madrid and therefore a larger selection of players from which to choose their squads. The Britanicos were representing Great Britain and hard as they tried they just found the opposition a bit stronger and were unable to secure a victory. Great experience and with not such a tough group next year better progress will be expected.

At the end of the season the club enjoyed a night out where both the stories and the beer flowed in equal measure. When the voting was complete the awards went to:

Players of the Year
First Team: Gary Weir

Second Team: Shared Warwick Smith and John Mckeon

Most Sporting Player
First Team: Dan Mullarkey

Second Team: Warwick Smith

Club Pichichi

First Team: Dave Hughes

Second Team: Rob Turner

Club Committee for season

Stuart Gibb, Rami Majid, Gary Weir, Marco Bos, Warwick Smith

Season 2004-05

It was an eventful, successful and very interesting season in many ways.

The league team finished 5th. In the first part of the league, every club played each other once and then the top 6 played each other twice more. Britancios had finished the first part in the top 6 which meant they played Instalacion Pumo, Initec, Norgueras, Transportes Professionales and Portland again, all previous and recent league winners. The football played in this second part proved to be very competitive and the Britanicos more than held their own with victories against 3 of these teams and a couple of draws. Their draw against Instalacion prevented Pumo from winning the league for the second year in succession and allowed Initec to win the league on goal difference.

The friendly team, which from next season will officially become a second team in the Bunver league, also played a lot of football. They played against some of the teams from last season´s mini league, visiting teams from England and some of the countries preparing for the Mundialito such as Angola, Paraguay, Uruguay and Nigeria. They won more than they lost and confidence was so high that after leading handsomely in one game, manager Paul Musgrave changed things round at half time and came up with the tantalisingly threatening central defensive partnership of Danny Topping, friendly team goalkeeper and Stuart Gibb veteran Britanico. Sadly this combination will not be seen again as Danny has accepted a better offer from Thailand.

Other football was also played and in October there was a 4 team tournament involving three Britanicos´ teams and Richard Stuckes´company, Philips. Richard was leaving after a short spell in Madrid and made a generous contribution by sponsoring the tournament and a few beers after. Thanks Richard.

In November a very fiery 6 nations competition took place at Rivas involving, England, Scotland, Morocco, Spain, Bolivia and Rest of the World. Scotland proved to be the surprise of the tournament and under the cunning guidance of Alan Munro made the semi final. But again the Scots invented a new way to go out of a tournament, this time it was floodlight failure. Losing 2 - 0 to Morocco the Scots donated the game when with 10 minutes to game the lights went out on their chances of progressing to a final with England. And so the final was between Scotland´s auld enemy and an explosive Moroccan team. And what a final. With many English players at their very competitive best, in particular Chis Taylor, Paul Taylor, Paul Heal and Dave Hughes the outome was not decided till the final minute when Moroccan clinched victory 3-2.

For the first time ever the club organised an Inter Company Futbol Sala Competition where Britanico players joined up with their work colleagues and played each other . After a series of group matches, all teams entered the sudden death knock out stages till we had 2 teams which contested the final. In the final, Repsol led by Jamie Quin proved to have too much in their tank and ran out 4-0 winners against the Doctors from La Paz Hospital, captained throughout by the very popular Marco Bos. The whole event was accompanied by a raffle which raised valuable funds for the club. Prizes included air travel tickets from B.A.Systems and Real Madrid merchandise.

Marco Bos was also responsible for finding a new sponsor B.M.I during the season. After some lengthy discussions and e.mails the club received 2 new sets of strips. To celebrate the relationship with B.M.I a special game was organised at the headquarters of the Spanish Football Federation at Las Rozas. This was played on the grass pitch which Real Madrid regularly train on. After, the club presented their Annual Player of the Year Awards to Paul Taylor in the League Team and joint winners in the friendly team, Dave Pugh and Aaron Thomas.

The final action of the season saw the club take part in the Mundialito, a tournament organised in June and July by the Madrid Football Federation. F.C.Britanico represented Great Britain in the third edition for the immigrant population of Madrid. The majority of players from both Britanicos teams played and gained valuable experience to come back next year with a serious chance of making a big impact on the tournament.