Over one hundred and thirty players and spectators descended on to Toryglen regional football centre in Glasgow at the end of July, to compete for the inaugural MAN v FAT Football Big Scottish Tournament with ten teams competing to be crowned the best MAN v FAT Football team in Scotland.
The teams were made up from across the five MAN v FAT Football clubs in Scotland, Glasgow, East Kilbride, Paisley, Fife and Edinburgh.
MAN v FAT Football organised the event to raise money for two charities, Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) and Cash For Kids, and a total of £820 has been raised so far.
The group stages saw the ten teams play across two groups, with the top two proceeding to the semi-final stages. Group A was dominated by Inter Mabelly from Glasgow who stormed into to the semi finals with 4 wins from 4. They were joined by OG RB FC, also from Glasgow, who sealed the final spot with a hard fought 2-2 draw against Fife’s Fat N’ Furious after dominant wins versus MvF Edinburgh and the aptly named Eat Kilbride (East Kilbride).
In Group B, things were much closer with 3 teams all in with shout of qualifying going into the last game. Vanduara Victorious (Paisley), Wider Bremen, (Glasgow) Real Madras and Scran Marino (Both Fife) looked on in anticipation as the final results were processed. A narrow 2-1 victory for Real Madras versus bottom of the table Heart Attack FC (Glasgow) was enough to see them top the group, followed in second by Scran Marino who ground out a 1-1 draw against Vanduara Victorious.
After a quick refreshment break, the semi finals kicked off. Inter Mabelly v Scran Marino and OG RB FC v Real Madras. In semi final 1 it was a gritty performance by Inter Mabelly who overcame Scran Marino 1-0 in a really close encounter. In the other semi final, and with the score at 1-1, it went to penalties with the Real Madras keeper pulling off great a save to win the tie and head to the final.
We were all set to find out which team would be crowned the MAN v FAT Football Scotland National Champions. It was Glasgow v Fife. As the game kicked off both teams were giving their all.
As with all their previous games Inter Mabelly started off strong racing to an early 3-0 lead after just 6 minutes. A fourth was added on 8 minutes despite Inter Mabelly having a player in the sin bin for kicking the ball away despite this it looked it looked like another dominant Inter Win was on the cards.
Real Madras had other ideas though winning a penalty on 9 minutes for player encroachment in the area. The penalty was duly dispatched and the score was 4-1 as the halftime whistle sounded.
In the second half, it was Real Madras who started the best scoring a great goal within the first minute. The comeback looked on! Unfortunately for Madras their concentration seemed to have waned after they scored their second goal as the team conceded 3 within 5 minutes haven given the ball away cheaply each time.
With the score at 7-2 the game was done when Inter Mabelly added an 8th late on to take home the silverware and be crowned the first ever MAN v FAT Football Scotland National Champions.
With the bragging rights going to Glasgow and Inter Mabelly, no doubt the team were off into Glasgow to celebrate. It will be interesting to see if they can retain title as the other 4 Scottish MAN v FAT Football clubs look to take home the medals and trophy next year.
