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In 2015, the Twigg boys represented two different football Federations. They played Youth Futsal for NFF, and Senior Futsal for AFF. But an anti-poaching rule change this year forced them to choose one federation for both Youth and Mens. This meant either:
- abandoning the NFF youth team, which they had taken to within a whisker of a national championship in 2015, or
- abandoning the AFF mens team which was crowned champions in 2015.
The decision was simple – they wanted the Youth National Championship that had eluded them the year earlier, so they stuck with NFF. And now, having secured the Youth Championship in 2016, it was time to step up into the senior team, and see if they could help this team to a National League championship (or at the very least, a top four finish).
Despite having a full training schedule for Youth Football (outdoor) the boys (with the exception of Denny, who is injured) squeezed in enough time to make the NFF roster for series 1 of the 2016 championship, and squared up against their old team, AFF, in a local derby double-header.
The AFF team was laden with current and ex Futsal Whites, whereas NFF’s team was relatively young and inexperienced. And AFF leveraged this well in the opening half of game 1 as poor discipline saw NFF concede 7 fouls. Since every foul past five results in a penalty, AFF were gifted two goals to lead 2-0 at half time.
Having sat out the first half to recover from their outdoor game earlier that day, Art and Sam made their debut at the start of the second half, along with two fellow U19 players, and a U16 player. It was five teenagers against potentially five national representative players, and it took them less than 45 seconds to make their presence felt. An incisive pass up the middle from Sam found Art who was fouled by Marvin Eakins as he turned towards the goal. Eakins earned a yellow card, and Northern a free kick which Sam deftly steered into the bottom corner.
AFF’s futsal elite were getting flustered and ran up the foul count to 5 in five minutes. But they composed themselves, and with the NFF youth players on the bench, they snatched another goal to reinstate their 2-goal cushion. With five minutes to go, AFF were playing a conservative game to preserve their foul count. So the youth squad was mobilised en masse to probe the softer defence. After skirting around the edges, Eden Caudwell struck a long shot which took a deflection into the top corner. And shortly after that, NFF stalwart Nikola Velkovski struck another long shot which found it’s mark.
AFF had been ambushed, and although they pressed hard they couldn’t break the deadlock and the game ended in a draw.
Game 2 saw a steely AFF attack, lead by Marvin Eakins, Steve Ashby-Peckham and Dylan Mannickum who was returning from his soccer commitments to spearhead the starting lineup. They scored early, but were far from comfortable, and when the NFF Youth players took the field, vented their frustrations with a string of cheap fouls. When they gave up a foul on the edge of their penalty area, Oban Hawkins took a quick tap back to Art, who tapped it straight on to Sam, who hit it first time across the face of the goal off the back post into the back of the net.
AFF were sitting on five fouls, and knew the next one would cost them. So when Art was impeded by Eakins as he ran towards the goal, the Ref pointed to the 10m penalty spot. Sam stepped up and tapped a ball past the outstretched Billet into the bottom corner of the goal.
NFF continued to press, and were unlucky not to go further ahead having breached the AFF defence several times. But AFF also had their moments. As the clock wound down into the last minute of play, with the scores locked at 4 a-piece, NFF got one last look at the AFF goal with a free kick 15 metres out. Sam stepped up again, and unleashed a screamer which rebounded off the post. The scores remained unchanged, and the game ended in a second draw.
While NFF felt they could’ve had two wins, they’re happy enough with two draws against 3-time championship winning AFF. This is a very respectable opening salvo for the 2016 National League campaign.
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