The close season may be upon us, but while Oxford United?s players are relaxing in Florida (or wherever), their fans team Raging Fever FC pulled on the yellow and blue shirts again on Saturday and took their first tentative steps into tournament football in the six-a-side Chaos Cup. This annual sixteen team competition, organised for a local charity by the Leyton Orient fans team, was held at the Douglas Eyre Sports Centre in North East London, and attracted entrants from all over the UK.

The tournament kicked off with four groups of four, and Oxford?s first opponents were Torquay?s Capital Gulls. In a hard-fought match RF fell behind early on, but recovered well and had the ball in the back of the net soon after, only for Pat Wehmeier?s strike to be disallowed as another ball had strayed onto the pitch from the neighbouring game. Just after half time Fever did draw level with a great goal. John Matthews broke free down the right after a neat exchange of passes in midfield and struck a sweet shot low and hard past the keeper from a tight angle.

The Gulls? only tactic was to drill long balls towards their strong and talented centre forward, but he was effectively marked out of the game by Wehmeier, and Oxford gained in strength as the game progressed and should really have won it. Frustration at not being able to exert their superiority turned ultimately to despair, however, as Torquay scored an undeserved winner with the very last kick of the game, turning in a well taken corner from close range.

Next up were the group?s weakest team from UCL Library, who, despite not creating much in the way of chances themselves, managed to thwart Fever for most of the game with dogged defending and excellent goalkeeping. The U?s had plenty of chances, but had to rely on a single late goal to chalk up their first points of the day. The goal was certainly worth waiting for as Pat Wehmeier picked up a loose ball near the half-way line, let fly from fully 15 yards (these are 6-a-side pitches, remember!) and watched the ball sail over the keeper into the net.

Fever?s final group game was against TFC Dynamo from Scotland, who had looked impressive in collecting four points from their opening fixtures. This meant they only needed a draw to progress to the Cup knockout competition and consign RF to the less prestigious Plate. Oxford had taken confidence from the first two games, however, and stubbornly resisted TFC?s strong, accomplished football before Nick Wehmeier scored the only goal of the game to ensure the Yellows? qualification as second-placed team in the group, behind Torquay.

Raging Fever were pitched against our old friends from Shrewsbury Away Fans FC in the quarter finals of the Cup. The Shrews are a much more experienced tournament team, having recently competed in European competition in Spain, and never looked in danger against a willing but limited Fever outfit. Two second-half goals sealed a comfortable victory. The first came after a rare lapse in concentration in the Oxford defence, the second from a breakaway as Fever pushed for an equaliser.

Thus RF finished a very respectable joint 5th out of 16 teams, having lost to arguably the best team in the tournament. Shrews didn?t concede a goal all day, but couldn?t break down a dogged rearguard action by Celtic in the semis, who went on to win on penalties and then repeat the trick and claim the Chaos Cup against an impressive Lincoln side in the final, after another goalless game. Shrews took third place after thrashing Stratford Stompers 4-0 in the play-off match.

The Plate final saw Torquay B (which had surreptitiously become Torquay A as the competition progressed) beat TFC Dynamo 2-1, proving again that Fever had done well to qualify from a strong group in the morning. Birmingham picked up the Wooden Spoon after sportingly rolling over in the basement battle to the UCL Library team, which by now consisted largely of kids.

Despite its name, this tournament was far from chaotic, and it finished up with a social evening, awards ceremony and quiz, for which thanks must go to the organisers. We look forward to coming back next year – if we?re invited, of course!

Results

Group C:

Torquay 2 Raging Fever FC 1 (John Matthews)

Raging Fever FC 1 (Pat Wehmeier) UCL Library 0

TFC Dynamo 0 Raging Fever FC 1 (Nick Wehmeier)

Cup Quarter Final:

Shrewsbury 2 Raging Fever FC 0

Raging Fever’s Chaos Cup squad:

(Back row L-R) Nick Wehmeier, John Matthews, Pat Wehmeier, James Longshaw, Simon Eddy

(Front row L-R) Jon Brown, Joel Harrison, Steve Gilbert, Tommy Wehmeier