The Under 13's/14's tour to Enschede, Holland, is the highlight of the season for these boys and a great way to finish the year.

Combining the superb accommodation with the top standard teams in the tournament makes for a hugely enjoyable and challenging experience.

As you can see from the clubs below, the size of the clubs in this tournament provides a great experience and challenge for these players.

1^STPSV Eindhoven
2^NDDerby County
3^RDSouthend United
4^THAZ Alkmaar
5^THFC Twente
6^THBrommapojkarna
7^THSparta Rotterdam
8^THWerder Bremen
9^THRC Genk
10^THVogido

We opened the tournament with a 1-1 draw with Sparta Rotterdam, having led 1-0 for the majority of the game. The timing of their equaliser was a sickener, although probably deserved, but to lose two points so late and not even have time to kick off disappointed us. Our second game of the day was against Vogido, which we won 4-1. It was a good performance making use of our attacks and doing our goal difference no harm at all.

Day two would be our defining day. We began with a 4-0 victory against Brommapojkarna having been 0-0 at half time after a lethargic first half display. The second half was full of creativity and energy and provided us with a great platform to build on for the day, with the aim of qualifying for the semi finals with a top two finish in our group.

A strong and athletic Derby County defeated us 1-0 in our final group game, which didn't stop us from qualifying but did give them top spot and us our first taste of defeat. However, this is a very resilient group as the next game showed. They don't know when they're beaten and fight until the end; a quality that has served us well over the past two weekends.

A semi-final against PSV Eindhoven was relished. PSV strolled a tough group with four wins from four matches, scoring 12 and conceding none. We knew the challenge was great, but this excites us. The first half was a whirlwind and backs against the wall doesn't quite do it justice. The speed and intricacy that PSV played with was breathtaking. Our naivety and eagerness to regain possession made it easy for them to junk past and play around us. After just 11 minutes we were 3-0 down. The boys responded with a goal from a set piece at the end of the first half. 3-1 down with 15 minutes to go. Could we?

Well the second half was superb. A combination of much more patient and intelligent defending, resilience and winning mentality together with much better use of the ball enabled us to dominate territory and possession and create numerous chances. We scored an early goal which gave us great momentum but couldn't find the equaliser - what a comeback that would've been! Nevertheless this was a game where so much learning was done and many qualities shown in the second half were pleasing.

We had fallen short of a place in the final, but were determined to wrap up third place against another huge Dutch club, AZ Alkmaar. It was only last weekend that I was in their stadium with our 1997's in Den Helden, now our 1996's were playing them. A goal conceded after 23 seconds was not a great start, but better than against Sparta, we had time.

We played some scintillating football and created a host of chances. A 3-1 victory was well deserved and a third place finish (our highest in the past four years in this competition) something to be proud of.

Ted Smith's performances in goal were rewarded with the goalkeeper of the tournament award. This was a fine end to the season for Ted after a string of fine performances making crucial saves in a number of games and displaying a wide range of distribution qualities. PSV Eindhoven picked up the award for the Best Player with their number nine centre forward picking up plaudits from all the participants and spectators. It was this player who caused us huge problems in our first half with PSV, with fantastic footwork and skill. Our players defended much better against him in the second half, but he was a deserved recipient of this award as was Ted.

The standards set and maintained by this group among others I take away continue to receive wide spread praise. A good attitude, professional and mature behaviour and manners can get you a long way. I am very proud of the performance of the team both on and off the pitch, they are a great credit to Southend United FC and I am sure that the future for them can be full of opportunities like this one if they continue to perform as they have and listen with an intent to learn.

Mark Bonner
Recruitment Officer