By bobmcp
March 31 2016

We have interupted our previously stated holiday break to bring details of East Stirlingshire Galaxy 2002 boys club, who competed in the Holland Cup over the Easter weekend.  

Seventy-two teams from twelve countries set out to be crowned this year’s champions. Despite the Shire boys being included in a very difficult group comprising Icelandic, English and Belgium teams, East Stirlingshire Galaxy came second in their league.

On the Sunday they were drawn against Scottish team AC Rovers, winning 1 – 0, then they drew 1-1 with Sporting Almere of Holland. After that match some with Shire affiliations felt that there had been some very questionable refereeing which favoured the local team! However the Shire boys couldn’t and wouldn’t be deterred!

Eventually East Stirlingshire Galaxy reached the competition’s semi final and came up against an extremely powerful, physical Norwegian side. The Shire went a goal up in the first half and looked comfortable but in the second half they began to tire. With pressure mounting, a dodgy equalising goal was awarded against them. Unfortunately the question of whether the ball fully crossed the line was decided by officials who were some way from the play.  A very late goal for the Norwegian lads gave them a 2 – 1 win, denying the Shire boys a place in the final which would have been the achievement to beat all achievements!

In the third v fourth play-off East Stirlingshire Galaxy came up against AS80 of Holland, another powerful team. The Shire boys played some incredible football and scored a wonderful first half goal. They subsequently saw out the game comfortably with yet another clean sheet.

All in all, an outstanding accomplishment.