London Titans Football Club

London Titans finished their 2009/10 GFSN season with a stylish and comprehensive 5-0 victory over Nottingham Ball Bois at The Beveree Stadium.

Titans raced into the lead courtesy of Tickner, who then grabbed his second goal of the game. Titans were cruising, and aside from one or two shaky moments at the back, were safely in control of the game by half time.

In the second half Titans quickly added a third goal to their tally, with Tickner completing his hat-trick with a stunning solo goal. Racing with the ball down the left hand side, he cut inside two Nottingham defenders before smashing a low shot into the near corner.

With a comfortable lead manager Ed was able to make a number of substitutions, Miller came on at rightback, Tezza in centre midfield, and Peter K on for Tickner.

Despite the changes, Titans maintained their energy and passing football and soon added a fourth goal via Beal – heading home from close range after an in-swinging Tezza corner.

Debutant Mark “Chappers” Chapman came on at centre-back for the final 15 minutes, winning some important headers and challenges.

With full-time approaching, Tezza finished off a memorable game for the Titans with a free-kick that found the top-corner.

The passing, work-rate and counter-attacking of the Titans was excellent throughout the match, and the team can be very proud of the their performance. It’s fair to say that if we could have managed to perform like that in previous games, the Titans would be much higher up in the table.

Titans are now guaranteed a top-half finish in the table – we’re currently fifth, however if Nottingham win their two remaining games this season they shall leapfrog above us (and Yorkshire) and push us down into 6th place.

London Titans vs Nottingham Ballbois
1. Felton
2. Serge
3. Wheeler
4. Birch
5. Sheila
6. Mikey
7. Sean
8. Matty
9. Beal
10. Tickner
11. Tom S

Subs
12. Tezza
13. Miller
14. Neville
15. Peter K
16. Chappers

London Titans succumbed to their fifth GFSN League defeat of the season today against Birmingham Blaze.

With four players unavailable and Adrian running the London Marathon, manager Ed had to contend with a selection headache.

The vertically-challenged pairing of Tezza & Serge took up the roles of centre-backs for the game, alongside fullbacks Wheeler and Miller. Matty, Felton, Mikey and Sean lined up in midfield, and Tickner was paired with Beal up-front.

Titans got off to the worse possible start when they conceded a penalty in only the second minute – however blushes were spared when the Blaze striker blasted it over the bar.

The nervous start continued with wave-after-wave of Blaze attacks, but Titans slowly got out of first gear and Tickner was running riot on the left flank and linking up well with Beal.

It wasn’t long before Tickner got the ball in the Blaze net, but his wonderfully lobbed goal was inexplicably ruled out for offside – despite it being plainly obvious he’d sprinted past two Blaze players.

The referee, who produced probably the worst performance I have ever seen from a man in the middle of a GFSN game (and thats saying something), consulted his linesman and it was obvious he wasn’t going to overrule him.

Inevitably, Blaze then went on to take the lead with a soft goal that went through the heart of the Titans defence. Birthday boy Matty tried desperately to intercept a pass but unwittingly played in the Blaze striker in acres of space. He wasn’t going to miss and slotted into the bottom corner.

Tickner though showed his class just before half-time. A dazzling run on the left-hand side and an inch-perfect cross was met by Beal who headed across goal with the keeper rooted.

HT 1-1

Yep – you guessed it, another Titans slow start. And this time, it was punished in the worst possible way with a goal to the home side. A lob from the edge of the area crept into the far corner and Titans were behind again.

Titans were linking up well and putting some good passing moves together but the home side were managing to deal with our attacks and countering with potency.

Blaze doubled their lead with an outrageous goal from their own half – spotting OJ of his line, the Blaze striker struck an accurate lofted shot that was going in from the moment he hit it.

The rest of the game was played out with some desperate defending, and some equally desperating attacking, but clawing back the goal was sadly beyond us.

Blaze deserved their win, but their can be no denying that with a full-strength squad and more depth on the bench, Titans would have been more competitive in this game and possibly earned some vital points.

The result means Titans have only won half their games this season. In the final league game of the season, Titans simply must record a win over Nottingham Ballbois if they are to finish in the top half of the league.

Thanks to Blaze for their hospitality (excellent buffet!) and playing the match with great fairness and spirit.

London Titans succumbed to a heartbreaking defeat to Nottingham Ballbois in the GFSN Cup Semi-Final this weekend at Hampton.

Titans got off to a shaky start to the tie conceding a goal within 5 minutes, but gained parity in the 12th minute with a goal from a Paul Wheeler throw.

Titans probably just edged the first half, although Nottingham were hampered by an injury to their dangerous right-winger AJ who hobbled off; he’d later return to play an influential role in the tie.

In the second half, Nottingham grabbed two goals in quick succession.  The returning Nottingham winger AJ beat two Titans players, before sending in a superb cross that was met by the head of the striker to score.

Pretty quickly, they doubled their lead with a sublime if fortunate strike from 35 yards on the volley.

But Titans weren’t going to let their head drop and Tickner managed to grab a goal seemingly from nothing with a sweet strike to the bottom left-hand corner.  Titans tails were up and hunting an equaliser.

Following some good build up play on the left-hand side by Tickner, Alan B grabbed his first goal in Titan’s colours with a rasping shot from 18 yards.

The game went to extra-time, and a free-kick from 19 yards for Nottingham was clinically despatched by James Hill into the near-corner. It was another excellent goal by Nottingham, all four were (disappointingly for us) very well taken.

Titans search for an equaliser continued into the second period of extra time, but that search was ultimately fruitless. It was a heartbreaking way to lose the tie.

The balance of play was pretty equal throughout this epic tie, but the simple fact remains that Nottingham led the match on three separate occasions.

Titans can take heart from having the courage and resolve to battle their way back into the tie and, whilst our domestic campaign shall end without silverware, the squad should be extremely proud of a season that has seen many positives and signs of improvement.

With numerous tournaments both home and abroad throughout the summer, the team shall have plenty of opportunity and talent to win silverware during 2010.

Titans MOM (as nominated by Nottingham Ballbois players & Supporters) Mikey
Titans MOM (as nominated by Titans players) TBA

Titans capped off a superb weekend of football by progressing to the semi-finals of the GFSN National Cup after defeating Hotscots 4-1 at Hampton

Manager Ed fielded a full-strength squad and having never beaten the Hotscots, Titans started the game in determined mood. The first five minutes were spent camped in Hotscots half, with a couple of corners. However, Hotscots stubborn defence held firm and the next ten minutes were largely even.

The Titans breakthrough came midway through the first half, a ball played in from the left hand side was headed goalward by a Hotscots defender and judged to have bounced over the line. An OG, but they all count.

As mentioned, Titans have never beaten Hotscots and there were key players in their midfield that we knew we had to stop playing. Thankfully, Sean & Mikey in midfield were superb in quickly closing down and preventing them having any time on the ball.

However, despite Hotscots only really creating one or two chances that peppered the Titans goal, they soon levelled through a bizarre goal. If you want the details, ask OJ

The rest of the half was mainly played out in midfield; Titans were dealing comfortably with the Hotscots attacks, but we weren’t fluid enough with our own passing or spreading the ball wide quick enough.

HT: 1-1

The second half was a different story. In the 55th minute, a throw in quickly lead to Matt “Prancing Pony” Beal carving his way through the Hotscots defence and putting the Titans ahead with a sweet strike to the bottom corner.

With a slender lead, Titans demonstrated a nervous disposition and the game became a bit frantic. Another Titans corner was almost buddled home by Birchy but was cleared off the line, and Seany was playing admirable in midfield and trying to push forward in search of his first goal.

Birchy did manage to get on the scoresheet a few minutes later. Another corner was whipped in and Birch smashed low into the net to double our lead.

Paul T then pounced on a defensive error and Titans had a 3-on-1 to kill the game. He played a square ball to Tezza/Sean and Tezza, being the kind-hearted soul he is (or a rubbish left foot?), left it for Sean to smash home.

4-1 and a comprehensive second half performance by the Titans sends them through to the GFSN National Cup Semi-Final versus Nottingham Ballbois on 11th April.

Titans Line-Up
1. OJ
2. Serge
3. Birch
4. Dave E
5. Wheeler
6. Mikey
7. Tickner
8. Sean
9. Beal (74′ Tezza)
10. Matty B
11. Tom S (83′ Miller)

Unused Subs
Ed, Neville

Match Officials
Andy W, Gavin B, Andy T

Titans secured their first GFSN League win of 2010 with a 6-0 victory over Leftfooters at Old Deer Park.

Titans, usually slow starters, raced into a two goal lead thanks to goals from Neville and Tickner and before long Tickner doubled his tally after racing onto a through ball from Tezza and slotting home.

Titans added two more goals before half-time and were cruising at 5-0.

With the Hotscots Cup fixture the next day, manager Ed and coach Chris M made some subs as the second half progressed.

To give credit to Leftfooters, they also upped their game in the second period and made life tough for the Titans, who could only manage a solitary goal in the second period from Sean L.

Well done to Peter Knight, Neville & Miller who all played 90 minutes and performed well.

Titans Line Up:
1. OJ
2. Miller
3. Ed
4. Birch (45′ Sheila)
5. Wheeler (45′ Serge)
6. Mikey
7. Tezza
8. Peter Knight
9. Tom (60′ Matty)
10. Tickner (60′ Sean)
11. Neville

London Titans have two GFSN games this weekend, as we race towards the end of the season.

On Saturday 20th March, Titans host our friends Leftfooters in a home league game at Old Deer Park. Kick off is scheduled for 10:30am.

The next day, Sunday 21st March, sees Titans hosting Hotscots FC in a GFSN National Cup Quarter-Final. The game is scheduled to kick off at 11am and will be played at Hampton & Richmond Borough FC

Saturday 20th March – 10:30am
GFSN National League – London Titans vs Leftfooters FC

Sunday 21st March – 11:00am
GFSN National Cup QF – London Titans vs Hotscots FC

London Titans took two teams to the Yorkshire Tournament 2010 last weekend and whilst neither progressed to the knock-out stage, all players had a great weekend away.

Some players arrived on Friday evening and took advantage of £1.50 shots, whilst the majority of players arrived the next afternoon and immediately started supping champagne cocktails. Congratulations to Tezza and Scotty on being the ‘last Titans standing’, arriving back at their respective hotels at 5am on Sunday morning.

With some players stinking of booze we took to the field and Titans 2 did extremely well. Ed Connell started banging in goals galore (much to his own, and others, surprise).

Titans 1 definitely scored the goal of the century (maybe). One touch passing moves, with Chris F cheekily backheeling the ball through to Tezza who smashed the ball first time into the top corner.

A close second was OJ’s scorching shot from near the halfway line that left the keeper with no chance.

Titans 2 almost… almost… made the knock-out stages but succumbed to a defeat in their last group game against Newcastle Panthers. Beal nearly grabbed a hat-trick in one game, and Sally was her usual reliable self in goal.

Highlight of the day came in watching the demise of Falcons, who couldn’t even muster a win against Leftfooters. The good-natured banter on the sidelines certainly got most of the tournament’s players interested!

As usual, the Yorkshire Tournament was excellently organised and everyone had a great weekend in Leeds. Even Miller, who couldn’t drink due to medical reasons!

Sunday 7th March – Old Deer Park
Titans succumbed to another loss in the league this season against table-topping rivals Falcons at Old Deer Park.

OJ in goal pulled off some fantastic saves in the first half and despite going behind, Titans equalised just before the interval with a fanny-tapper goal from Beal (they all count).

However in the second half Titans couldn’t get any rhythm to their game and Falcons scored twice more to put the game beyond doubt.

Next week sees the Titans take two teams to the Yorkshire Tournament.

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.

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 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.