5-A-SIDE FOOTBALL 2004
SPONSORED BY MICHAEL PAGE

8 teams representing 6 different firms together with a team from BPP and Michael Page competed in the annual 5-a-side football tournament on Sunday 4th April 2004. The event was held at Pro-5 football complex, Brislington with sponsorship from Michael Page Finance.
The tournament commenced at 10am with the previous night etched on several players' faces. Two groups of four teams fought for a place in the semi-finals with the bottom team in each group battling to avoid the wooden spoon.

The initial outsiders, BPP, quoted at 100-1 at the start of the day were the surprise package of the tournament with resounding victories over Bakertilly and Deloitte and Touche. Chris Martin showed just how valuable experience is in these circumstances.

KPMG and PWC battled out Group 2 and eventually ended on the same points following a 1-1 draw between the teams, with KPMG topping the group due to a more favourable goal difference.
Cries of 'Taxi for Parsons' could be heard from the supporters as another long range effort from Jason endangered parked cars, as Deloitte and Touche crashed to the bottom of the group. This landed them in the unwanted dog-fight with Robson Rhodes, who finished without registering a victory from Group 2.

Following semi-finals between Robson Taylor, run-away winners of Group 1 and PWC, and KPMG and BPP, the final was fought out, as in 2003, between PWC and KPMG.

The final was an aggressive affair with some hostile tackling by both sides as the rivalry ran deep. Following 10 bruising minutes each way the sides could still not be separated as the scores showed 1-1. So it went to penalties and a test of who could hold their nerve and KPMG edged it 5-4 - it could not have been closer!

All the teams retired to the bar for sandwiches and light refreshments. The Robson Rhodes team was presented with the wooden spoon prize, which happened to be a bottle of champagne!
Thanks must go to Nick Bentley from Michael Page, and the weather, for making this a thoroughly enjoyable day.

click on photos to enlarge