Fun, Football & Fundraising
On a gloomy Tuesday afternoon, seven lads from CCS arrived at Goals, a football facility in Southampton. Upon entering the building, we were welcomed by Cameron and his team from Business Fives.
This was our second year participating in the competition, though with meetings and other commitments preventing many who took part last year, it was a very different line-up. One of the original squad members, who was due to return this year, unfortunately couldn’t make it in the end. Not only was he a key player, but his absence also left us one man down. As the team digested this information during the warm-up, heavy showers in the area repeatedly disrupted our preparations. The rain mostly cleared after this, but there were a few downpours during play.
CCS were placed in a group of three teams, with each team scheduled to play the others twice. We didn’t have a match in the opening round of fixtures, which gave us the opportunity to size up the other teams in our group.
Team CCS Squad 2025
KICK OFF
Morale was high going into our first match. We played against Knights 2nd, who had lost their opening game 8-2 to TPT Fire Projects. CCS got off to a flying start, getting an even better result by beating Knights 2nd 8-0.
In our second game, we came up against the other team in the group, TPT Fire Projects. We were expecting a much sterner challenge, and the match delivered. Heading into the final seconds, we were 3-1 down. A few quick substitutions brought on some fresh legs, and with less than 30 seconds remaining, we clawed it back to 3-2. Then, like something out of a movie, CCS equalised with the final kick of the match, levelling it at 3-3.
Our third group match was once again against Knights 2nd, who had started to settle into the competition. They gave us a good contest this time, but we still managed to secure all three points with a narrow 3-2 win.
Heading into our final group game, we were already assured a place in the Champions League, the top tier of the three competitions that follow the group stage. The focus now was on topping the group to secure a more favourable fixture in the knockout rounds. Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan. The rapid succession of games had started to take its toll, and a few of the lads were nursing knocks and playing through the pain.
TPT Fire Projects, with a full and talented squad, secured a 5-1 victory and finished top of the group. They went on to reach the Champions League final, which came as no surprise after their performance in our earlier meeting.
SPOILER ALERT: It all went slightly downhill for CCS from there. We were knocked out of the Champions League by the eventual winners, Morgan Sindall, and moved into the second-tier competition, the Europa League. Unfortunately, we exited that too, after a loss to Softcat. By this stage, we’d lost our goalkeeper to injury and were down to just six players.
We dropped into the third-tier Conference League and entered at the semi-final stage. Despite being depleted and exhausted, CCS put in a spirited performance but were narrowly beaten by the eventual winners, Womble Bond Dickinson.
It wasn’t the glorious victory we had hoped for, but we had a fantastic afternoon. Many of the squad didn’t know each other very well beforehand, so the day definitely brought a few colleagues closer together. Most importantly, our fundraising for the National Autistic Society has so far raised £450, a brilliant achievement, and one the lads can be rightly proud of.
You can still donate via our Just Giving Page.
Well done to all involved.
We’ll go again. Up the CCS. Come on, the Navy Blues!
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