July 25, 2016, by Kate Rothery

NTEC secure staff football title at last minute!

By Felix Llanwarne: Engage Ambassador

This summer UoN Sport once again welcomed staff from across all campuses for our popular staff summer football league as well as rivals from across the city at Nottingham Trent! Blessed with beautiful weather each week, seven teams battled it out across 11 weeks for the coveted league title as well as the Golden Boot.

With the narrowest of leads going into the final week it was the Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre (NTEC) who nabbed the top spot, with their striker Matteo also taking home the Golden Boot.

Matches were in full swing from week one, even if the list of substitutes grew ever longer each week, with the only pause being the England game on Thursday 16 June. Perhaps the only redeeming game of the tournament so it was almost worth it. Returning from this, our Daniel Sturridges and Toni Duggans and showed England how it’s done by putting a plethora of goals away. Whether it was Noisy Neighbours beating Villarealkane 7-3, NTEC putting 8 behind Bayern UNIP, or the SU Allstars walking away with a 10-0 win over the West Yard Rangers; the Staff Summer League 2016 was certainly not short of goals.

It was always going to be a close league with talent in each and every team and in the closing weeks the SU Allstars were confident that the title was theirs, boosted by a comprehensive 10-0 win. However, NTEC were not far behind and had a game in hand to their advantage.

Ultimately it came down to the final week with NTEC leading the table by 1 point and needing a win to secure victory. SU Allstars struggled to field a full team and lost to Realpolitik 8-6, despite a 5 goal comeback from Abel Hartman. NTEC didn’t falter and won comfortably over Bayern UNIP; but could their star striker Matteo win the Golden Boot?

With ten goals a-piece it came down to penalty shootout with Realpolitik’s Julian. In a best of three effort, they both put their first away with Matteo sneaking one past the keeper who managed to get a hand to the ball. However, possibly under the pressure of the moment, Julian failed to net his next two handing the title of the Golden Boot prize 2016 to Matteo.

University of Nottingham Sport offers a wide range of activities for University staff, from competitive sports memberships, a huge programme of fitness classes and drop in sports sessions. For more information visit our staff sports webpages.

Posted in EngageStaff