Go Team Wicked! - The Story of Totally Wicked Football Team
Over the past 3 Weeks Totally Wicked and TECC employees have been taking part in this year’s Orphanage Cup. Despite the limited employees to select from and the fact that few of the team have played together before, the progress has been impressive in reaching the semi-final under the guidance of Player/Manager Liam McLoughlin.
In the first round Wicked were drawn against Job Centre Plus where they strolled to a 6-1 win despite the treacherous conditions, courtesy of hat tricks from Graeme Anderson and Billy McMullan.
The second round proved to be a much tougher challenge in the form of Blackburn and Darwen Council B Team. Wicked got off to a shocking start going one nil down inside the first 5 minutes and despite all their dominance in the 1st half they couldn’t find that all important equaliser. A half time substitution in the form of Shaun Watson proved to be the turning point as ‘super sub’ scored with a sublime strike from outside the box. Despite Wicked creating all the chances and having most of the possession penalties looked inevitable, however with seconds left on the clock up popped Billy Mcmullan to grab that all important winning goal and send Wicked marching through to the Quarter Finals.
In the Quarter Finals Totally Wicked were drawn against RMS Scaffolding. Unlike the previous round Wicked took a shock lead after 15 minutes with Captain/Manager Liam McLoughlin charging down a defensive clearance and finding himself one on one with the onrushing Goalkeeper. Despite his claims to the contrary, Liam managed to convincingly ‘shin’ the ball round the keeper finding the bottom right hand corner of the net!
Now with Totally Wicked 1-0 up RMS upped their game with chances coming Left, Right and Centre. Keeper Townsend and his more than capable back four were keeping them at bay with some resilient defending, however it seemed it would only be a matter of time before they equalised. Despite the increasing pressure, Team Wicked caught RMS on the break with some neat one touch passing that found Billy McMullan again in acres of space. The Striker made no mistake and took advantage of a goalkeeping error to roll the ball into an empty net bringing the score to 2-0 just before half time. At the start of the Second half it wasn’t long before talisman Billy McMullan lobbed the goalkeeper twice to make the score 4-0.RMS managed to get a late goal to make the final score 4-1 to Team Wicked.
RMS Scaffolding were the overwhelming favourites going into this game, being an Amateur Sunday Club which had won the 2nd Division this season, however this did not stop a truly galvanised Team Wicked from progressing through to the Semi Finals. General Manager, Stuart Mercer, commented that ‘the performances of everyone involved had been exceptional given that the team had been assembled at very short notice. The lads have shown real team spirit throughout and the progress has created a definite buzz around the workplace for both players and supporters’.
The Semi Final game will be played at Darwen FC’s Football Ground on the Friday 11th May at 6.30pm against Red Rose Dry Lining. We would appreciate as many Wicked Fans as possible to come down and roar the lads to victory and hopefully the ‘hallowed’ turf of Ewood Park for the final. Finally a big thank you must go to the many ever presents in our supporters club who have braved every minute in often atrocious weather. Well thanks to Paul, Louise and Bob at least!
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