Swindon Town complete Social League fairy tale with 2-1 victory

By Harry McLusky

The Hampton Social League is undeniably the highlight of the Hampton sporting calendar. Every Wednesday afternoon, seven teams made up of Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth pupils take to the fields to compete with extreme levels of footballing flair and skill for the prestigious Social League trophy. To get more of a taste of the calibre of the players involved, take a look at Tom Oliver’s article from last year: Social League Stereotypes.

This year, the top six teams from the initial group stage would advance to the knockout stage, which culminated in last week’s final between Swindon Town FC and Ricky’s Rangers.

The originally-named Swindon Town were perhaps the fairy tale of this term’s season. The side were bottom of the table going into the final gameweek of the league, needing to better the results of their lower sixth rivals, Going Toulouse, to finish in the top six and progress to the knockout stage. An own goal gave them a slim 1-0 win, which, thanks to Toulouse’s 6-2 loss against Irrawaddy Dolphins, was just enough to book their space in the quarter-finals with just six points.

Ricky’s Rangers hadn’t performed much better. They finished 5^th in the group, also on six points, setting up their quarter-final against Irrawaddy Dolphins. Two late goals from Daniel Nikitin and Jack Seddon clawed them into the semi-finals against archrivals, Under The Tree FC. Swindon’s 5-2 victory over AFC Wangus also secured their place in the final four.

Both teams came into their respective semi-finals as underdogs. First up, Ricky’s faced Under The Tree in a match shrouded by controversy. For the record, rules had been set out earlier in the season stating that players in the knockout stages must have played this season, and can not be in the 3^rd XI or above.

With the half-time score at 0-0, Ricky’s Rangers manager Aryan Virdi played his trump card, exploiting an obscure loophole, by bringing on Lucas Hermann Sosa, a 3^rd XI player-turned-golfer who had played a grand total of three minutes this season for Ricky’s, somehow making him eligible for the semi-final. His impact was certainly prominent, scoring twice, including a free kick from the half-way line. Ricky’s lead was improved by Tom Milton capitalising on some shocking marking to score against his former club. Two late goals from Harry McLusky (scoring an absolutely world-class penalty and a bullet header) gave Under The Tree a glimmer of hope, but it was not enough to prevent them succumbing to a gut-wrenching 3-2 loss.

Swindon were up against Mukherjee’s Men, a team who were yet to lose and whose top scorer, James Derrick, had somehow managed to score 16 goals in six games so far (albeit most of them were tap-ins). Nonetheless, Derrick was subdued by a resilient defensive performance from Swindon, who held out strong to also shut out the mighty Tom Short and Ayoub Khan. Aabid Nurmohamed’s opening goal was cancelled out by Freddie McIntosh, forcing a tense penalty shootout. Declan Goh guided Swindon to a narrow victory, making key saves against Aaron Hegarty and Tom Short’s penalties, although he was perhaps helped out by Ayoub Khan doing his best impression of Harry Kane against France in the World Cup by launching his spot-kick over the bar. Their 2-3 victory on penalties set up the final that no one would have ever predicted five weeks ago, with Swindon’s final challenge coming up against Ricky’s Rangers.

Swindon started brightly, with Milo Band not dealing with a loose ball, which was pounced on by Harry Spence who drew the foul from Ben Zieleznik’s slide tackle inside the penalty box. However, Band stood strong, compensating for his previous error and heroically saving Spence’s weak penalty down to his left.

Despite this, soon after, Band soon committed another error – and this time it was costly. Sam Lee ventured miles out of his centre-back position with a darting run, before firing a frankly weak effort towards the bottom-right corner from 25 yards out. Band misjudged the flight of the ball and could only watch it trickle into the corner to give Swindon an early lead.

Swindon’s unexpected advantage prompted the introduction of Lucas Hermann Sosa, whose appearance in the semi-final had been so influential, yet so controversial. He was joined by 4^th XI and Twickenham Tigers star Felix Lyon, as well as Harry Takla, another ex-4^th XI player. The talent in the Ricky’s Rangers ranks was undeniable, but would this translate into a victory?

However, no amount of rabona passes from Lyon could stop Swindon from doubling their lead. With 17 minutes on the clock, Aabid Nurmohamed’s pace left the Ricky’s right-back for dead, before cutting inside and releasing Harry Spence. Swindon’s top scorer took one touch before unleashing a fantastic strike into the top-left corner, something that James Derrick could only dream of doing. If only Spence had decided to hit his penalty with such venom, Swindon may have gone into half time with a 3-0 lead, but they had to settle with their two-goal advantage, despite Jai Rai’s clearance-turned-shot forcing a corner from inside his own half.  

Following some Carragher-esque half-time interviews by fellow scouser Dylan Rutter, the second half began and the mammoth crowd around F5 was forced to endure a cagey opening ten minutes. Both Lucas Hermann Sosa on the volley and Felix Lyon from 25 yards out did their best to hit the ball into LEH, with the latter being successful – quite an impressive feat given the distance he was from the goal at the time.

Nonetheless, there was still life left in the game for Ricky’s, despite their misfiring star players. Tenacious pressing from Luke Vaughan down the right wing set up a chance for Tom Milton, whose header was acrobatically saved by Declan Goh. However, the ball was kept in well by Harry Takla who pulled it back for Hermann Sosa to tap in the easiest goal of his life to make the score 2-1 with ten minutes remaining.

Yet again, Swindon’s defence held strong to hold off relentless Ricky’s attacks, although they were certainly untroubled by Hermann Sosa’s third attempt of scoring a free kick from the half-way line in the dying embers of the game. Daniel Evans will be disappointed by a distinct lack of celebration following the full-time whistle, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that Swindon had at last completed their fairy tale, signing off with an impressive 2-1 victory over Ricky’s Rangers.

The loss to a Lower Sixth team was so humiliating for Ricky’s that they have since changed their name and badge out of embarrassment of losing to Swindon, something that Under The Tree FC would never do.

A successful and entertaining first Social League season drew to a close. A completely unbiased panel of two people (who both strangely appeared in the starting XI) created the following team of the season:

The new season is already underway, with AFC Wangus and Irrawaddy Dolphins already catching the eye in the opening week of fixtures. Only time will tell if Swindon can get their second trophy or whether an Upper Sixth team will do themselves justice and become victorious.