London Titans Football Club

Today’s LUL Cup Semi-Final 1st leg went unplayed today due to safety concerns with the pitch.

A new date for the game will be announced shortly.

Next up for Titans:

– 7th March: GFSN League: Falcons vs Titans ODP
– 14th March: Yorkshire Tournament
– Sat 20th March: GFSN League: Titans vs Leftfooters
– Sun 21st March: GFSN Cup QF: Titans vs Hotscots/Blaze
– Sun 28th March: GFSN League: Titans vs Leicester Wildecats

In a must win match versus opposition who have yet to drop points this season, London Titans were beaten by Bournemouth by a solitary goal on the south coast.

With our first-choice goalkeeper injured for the game, Birchy took the gloves with Serge lining up at centreback with Sheila. Otherwise, it was virtually a full-strength line up for the Titans.

Chances for both sides were few and far between, with both defenses comfortably dealing with any attacks. In the first half, the only real notable chance for Titans fell for Matty B but his shot from the edge of the box was straight at the keeper.

The second half was much of the same as both sides played out a midfield battle. Titans brought on replacements Miller (at leftback), Peter K (left wing) and GFSN debutant Alan B (on for Beal).

But a sucker-punch goal from Bournemouth 12 minutes from time, all-but-ended Titans title hopes for another season. The Bournemouth striker collected the ball 25 yards out from goal, and smashed home a low drive into the bottom corner.

Paul T had a chance to equalise late on but his first time, left-footed shot from 15 yards was skewed horribly wide.

All-in-all, a decent performance by Titans who maybe didn’t deserve to return to London empty handed – however winning teams create chances, and ruthlessly take them. Something Bournemouth did in this game. Titans will have to wait another year to win their first title – whilst Bournemouth march towards their second.

Next up in the GFSN League for Titans is Falcons GFC at Old Deer Park on Sunday 7th March.

As you will be aware our fixtures on 10th January (Romans Emperors v Titans W5 and Titans OutWest v Romans Caesars in the LUL League) and 17th January (Falcons v Titans in the GFSN League) had to be postponed due to the weather.  We are seeking to reschedule these games as soon as we can agree revised dates, so please check back here for new fixture dates.  Please note that owing to our heavy schedule some of these matches will need to be arranged times outside our normal Sunday afternoon slots; apologies in advance to those who will be impacted by this but there are simply not enough Sundays before the end of the season, plus we are trying to get matches in before the London Boroughs close their football pitches down in mid-April.

On a happier note there are two tournaments that we are planning to attend in addition to the World Gay Games (31 July to 7 August in Cologne).  These are the Stockholm tournament over Easter weekend (2-5 April) and the GFSN Summer Get Together which will be in Blackpool on 12-13 June.  Further details will be announced in the Forum.

We are pleased to announce a number of social and fundraising events for the first half of 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

The Titans will be in the bars of Soho this evening (Thursday 17th December) selling the 2010 “Swimwear edition” calendar. It is a steal at just £7.

The calendar has been selling fast following its inclusion in last month’s QX magazine and this month’s 3sixty magazine. The calendar can also be ordered online by contacting manager@londontitans.com

Mr. April

We are please to announce that the London Titans are being sponsored by the Warners LGBT Christmas Party.  Titans and their friends and families are invited to come along (entry £10) to Profile Bar, Wardour Street, on Wednesday 9 December from 7.30.

Amongst other things the Titans will be selling their 2010 promotional calendar (”the swimwear edition”) and selling shots. 

There will be a range of entertainment at what is always a fun night, with the added advantage that Titans are benefiting financially from the event.

Titans West 5 were knocked out of the LUL Cup Quarter-Finals by Falcons Fitlads after losing their single-tie game 3-0 at Old Deer Park.

Meanwhile, a few miles away in Barnes Stonewall FC and Titans Outwest played out a classic match that will go down in history as one of the great games ever to be played in LGB-friendly football.

Facing an uphill struggle to recover from a 3-1 defeat in the first leg, not even torrential rain or a rainbow could stop them from playing the match.  The game plan was simple – attack attack attack. This team knew (and so did Stonewall) that it had goals in it and the best defensive record in the league.

Beal scored Outwest’s first goal after ten minutes, and five minutes later Paul T got another to equal the tie on aggregate.

Stonewall heads dropped and Titans went on to win the first half 5-0 (6-3 on agg) with further goals from Tickner and Peter Knight.

The second half was even crazier. With complacency setting in, Titans replaced 6 players all at once, and Stonewall smelt blood by scoring twice (making it 6-5 on agg).  

Tickner managed to pull another goal back (7-5), and then ’fox in the box’ Maurice saw a header from the 6 yard line appear to bounce over the line, however the match officials couldn’t tell for sure and the ‘goal’ wasn’t awarded.  Almost immediately, Stonewall then raced down the other end of the pitch to grab another goal (7-6).

Tickner managed to get his fifth goal (8-6) but injuries started to creep in with several Outwest players coming down with cramp.

Tal gave away a needless free-kick on the edge of the box which Stonewall spectacularly scored from. This made it 8-7 to Titans with only minutes remaining. The roles had been well and truly turned. I can’t quite remember how they got their equalizer, but they did, right at the end. 8-8 on aggregate. 

 5 minutes into extra time and Peter K was the hero when he scored an identical goal from his first, another rebound. 9-8 on aggregate. Surely we could hang on now. We almost did. They threw everything at us and we defended bravely. Everyone back in hand-to hand fighting, nerves fraying, doing whatever it took to keep them out.

Birchy made a couple of amazing saves, one punching over the bar and another diving bravely at Eric’s feet to calm Titan nerves. Swiss Tom (singled out by Eric as the sole cause of the Stones’ defeat because of it) also stood out by clearing a shot off the line. 

Stonewall were down to 10 men when they got a corner in the last 2 mins. Their keeper came up. There were 21 men in the box! It came to nothing. But as Birchy took the goal kick quickly to feed the ball to Beal who faced an open net with their keeper struggling to get back, the kick landed at the foot of one of their players near the half way line who hoofed it back goalwards.

In slow motion we all just watched as it looped over Birchy’s arm  onto the underside of the crossbar and in. They had equalized again in the last 30 seconds. 9-9 on aggregate. 

Onto Penalties and with Stonewall missing all their penalties, and us scoring 3 out of our 4 (ironically it was Tickner, the 5 goal hero who missed!) Outwest were through.

A fantastic game, Titans were a credit to the club and deserve their place in the semi-final

Titans headed to Scotland this weekend (Nov 21/22nd) looking for revenge over their bogey side, Hotscots FC.

Last season, Hotscots defeated Titans in London (4-2, GFSN League), and in Edinburgh (6-3, GFSN Cup).  So 18 Titans and supporters made the long journey back to Scotland looking to avenge last season’s defeats.

London Titans have introduced a new yellow and black home kit.

Made by Adidas, the kit features embroidered logo, front & rear sponsorship and personalised names for players.  The yellow shirts comes in both short and long sleeves, black (numbered) shorts with yellow piping, and yellow socks.

The kit was debuted in the away game to Hotscots FC on November 22nd and the club will be purchasing more shirts over the rest of the season.

http://www.discountfootballkits.com/

As part of the ‘Kick it Out’ weeks of action, the Surrey FA hosted a Living Library event at their Leatherhead headquarters. Visitors to the library were able to discuss with London Titans manager Ed Connell the need for gay football teams and the problem of homophobia.

Click here to read the report on the FA website

Titans are delighted to announce that they will be playing a number of this season’s home games at Hampton and Richmond Borough FC.

The arrangement has been secured with the assistance of the former Mayor of Richmond Marc Cranfield-Adams who is both an ‘Outwest’ committee member as well as being a Director of Hampton and Richmond. The Titans are looking forward to playing at the 3,500 capacity stadium which is already home to Chelsea Ladies FC.

The first game to be played there will be the Titans Derby on Sunday 25th October, kick off 2pm.

Hampton & Richmond Borough FC 

Directions to the ground

Click here to see the announcement on Hampton’s website

Our 4th  Birthday Tournament was the most successful ever, attracting teams from outside of London for the first time.

The final placings were as follows:
1. London Falcons
2. London Romans
3. Titans West 5
4. Titans Outwest
5. Stonewall FC
6. Trowbridge
7. Leftfooters 2
8. Birmingham Blaze
9. Leftfooters 1
10.Cardiff Dragons
11.Phoenix

The Fair Play award, presented by our sponsors Outwest, was presented to Titans West 5. Many thanks to all those who made the event possible (our sponsors West 5 and Outwest, the Metropolitan Police, Paul the Patisserie in Richmond and all those who helped out on the day)

London Titans GFSN side secured their first league win yesterday in a heated contest with Brighton Bandits. Titans were three goals up within 16 minutes, a scoreline which reflected their dominance of the game (scorers: Felton, Beal and Baker).

Some momentary sloppiness in defence allowed the Bandits to pull a goal back before half time but any hopes they might have had that this goal would signal a revival in the fortunes were short lived. Not long after the start of the second half, Titans scored a fourth goal (Paul T) putting the match beyond doubt.

The final goal came from Serge, on as a subsitute for Thomas Scheurch who made it 5-1. The result, however, was marred slightly by the dismissal of a player from both teams.

Manager’s man of the match was Dave Simpson who put in a solid performance in goal, making some crucial saves including one which resulted in him taking a boot to the face.

The Titans next GFSN game will be against another of the league’s newcomers Cardiff Dragons.

A squad of seven Titans plus Gez as coach took part in the Leicester Wildecats annual 6-a-side tournament on Sunday 6th September.  Titans won this tournament in 2006 and were runners up in 2007 (it did not take place last year to avoid clashing with the IGLFA World Championships which were in London).  2009 was the largest ever entry with 27 teams participating.

 As usual the group stages were tightly fought with all the Titans’ group’s matches except one 2-2 draw ending 0-0 or 1-0.  The Titans’ team won 3 and lost 3 to finish mid-table, though only a couple of points off the top two finish required to go through to the quarter finals.  The tournament was won by Village Manchester in a final against Mersey Marauders.

Controversy arose in the match against new team Exeter when the referee failed to notice that the ball had gone into the Titans’ net before it rebounded straight back out.  After much dithering he concluded that the goal should not be awarded as he had not seen it, however the organisers decided to award the goal retrospectively after Exeter had protested and the Titans’ confirmed that the ball had entered the net.  This earned us a Fair Play award nomination and we duly won it. 

 The tournament was notable as the first tournament that the newly formed gay-friendly club in Exeter and the newly formed Bristol Panthers team, who have adopted the name of the previous Bristol GFSN club which disbanded four years ago, attended.  We wish them all the best in getting going and look forward to seeing them both in Richmond!

Squad: Kris, Duke, Sally, Haz, Aus, Maurice, Grandad.  Goals: Maurice, Grandad, Leftfooters OG.

London Titans humbled local rivals Falcons GFC 2-1 in the first round of the GFSN Cup at Warren Farm last Sunday afternoon (Sep 13).

Titans began the match demonstrating a nervous disposition as Falcons made the most of the wind behind their backs and the slight downhill slope. And it wasn’t long until Falcons scored, after a long ball into the box deceived the Titans keeper and the Falcons striker slotted home into an empty net.

Slowly Titans got back into the match and starting playing some good passing football. A free-kick out on the left was whipped into the six-yard box by Tezza on 30 mins which created confusion, and only luck prevented a Titans equaliser.

2 minutes before half time though, the equaliser came via a smashing shot by a former Falcons player. A glorious throw-in on the left-hand side was flicked into the area, where Birchy was waiting to take a touch past the central-defender and smash past the Falcons keeper.

HT 1-1

The second-half was a different matter, with Mikey – returning from the RAF – brought on in midfield bringing a combination of composure and class to proceedings alongside Captain Felton who was battling hard against the physical Falcons midfield.

But it was Paul T, making only his third start, who produced a sublime moment of skill to outfox the Falcons defense and smash home the winner with 15 minutes to go.

Titans can be proud of their performance on Sunday, especially after the poor game against Newcastle three weeks prior. Birchy was splendid at centre-half, comfortably dealing with every arial challenge and remaining composed with the ball on the floor.

Beal was solid upfront winning the majority of his challenges and flick-ons, and Paul T was fantastic in creating opportunities in attack.

Next up this coming Sunday (20th) is Brighton Bandits at Old Deer Park, another GFSN League game.