Havany lose and make final

[nkc]

Havant lost 2-1 to Shrewsbury today but the winners then withdrew from the final this evening due to injuries and poor playing surfaces. Meaning H&W will take on Blackpool, now thats a stroke of luck!

[MichaelEFC]

It makes a complete mockery of the tournament, a bit like last years farce.

[picamixdriver]

http://www.havantandwaterlooville.net/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1419&sid=7f50e7f89e62130ec5714ebfe074bd5f
Havant lost 3:2
but Blackpool won the cup before the game

[RendelFC]

Its not the most well organised tournament out there is it!

[mark]

I can't see how its the tournaments fault that two professional teams decided not to read the rules or itinery before they started !!!!

perhaps they should look at the example that Kilmarnock set , despite being knocked out on thursday evening they played a friendly at one of the host clubs on saturday evening, pity that Doncaster and Shrewsbury wern't that classy.

[Laundry Boy]

Quite right Mark, apparently Mr O 'Driscoll was something of an "arse" with the Tournament Officials.
Watched the Blackpool V Kilmarnock game on Thursday and somehow Blackpool managed to use at least 5 subs!

[Paul Satts]

The over riding message i'm getting here is that the tournament officials see this as being a prestige tournament that they can make these daft rules on. Truth is, each team participating, sees this tournament as a good way of getting a group of players together for a few days (often new players they want a look at), but they are generally using the games as nothing more that pre season friendlies. And because of that, they want to use as many substitutes as they can, so they ensure the enitre squad gets a decent run out. Looks like Mr Holloway was a quite cute about using more subs than the rules allowed, but as he is a Premiership mamanger and they are the premiership team, they get away with bending or blatantly disregarding the rules.
I wonder how many of this years teams with either bother to go back next year, or will be invited back next year?
Our lads seem to have done quite well for it and other than it being a bit of a farce, its seems to have been a good few days away for the management team aswell.

[picamixdriver]

Also us and Havant played two games in a row
that resulted in are captain (Tommy Jordan) missing out a game

[Laundry Boy]

All Clubs were well aware of the rules of the Competion before it began, so If teams wanted to pull out due to "only being allowed 3 subs" they could have done so before the Tournament started. It is an FA sanctioned Tournament,(NOT friendly matches) and therefore has to abide by the FA rules of 3 subs permitted.As for "the pitches" again all cllubs were advised of where they would be playing and when, so would have ample oppportunity to "investigate and research" the venues being used.
The hopsitality shown by the host clubs (Holsworthy and Elmore FC In our case) was of the highest order, and they had all worked hard to get there grounds and facilities ready for the tournament. The were all very welcoming and could not do enough for us.
This is a tournament that has grown over the last 3 years, (and will probably continue to grow) which allows teams to spend a week together as "a unit"and pretty much operate as a Full Time Club for a week, whilst staying at some of the top hotels in the region.
I find it very disrespectful that so called Professional Clubs can treat the event with such contempt.
We have already expressed our desire to return next year.

[Paul Satts]

I second that Kevin!
I think thats the problem the organisers will face next year, in that they want the bigger league clubs to take part in the tournament, because it gives it more prestige, but they seem to get the grief from the higher league clubs who want things to work in their favour. So it makes the tournament to the outside eye, look like a farce and poorly run, when in reality, as you rightly point out, it was very well run in terms of organisation and everyone knew. 

[RendelFC]

The daft point scoring system doesn't help give the tournament credability.

When all is said and done it is a friendly tournament and (even when we won it) its long forgotton about by the time the  season proper kicks off in August.

I don't think results are very important for us, as long as we get a couple of good work outs and suffer little or no injuries then it is a good part of the pre-season build up - nothing more or less  than that I think.