Goodison Park – 9 May 2004
On Sunday 9th May 2004 many Darklings were on hand to lend their support to The Darkness Team at the Music Industry Soccer Six Tournament round one at the Everton F.C. Grounds at Goodison Park, Liverpool.
The progress of The Darkness Team was closely followed, and for those of you that couldn’t make it on the day, we have a summary of the afternoon.
Team Darkness were greeted upon their arrival by a swarm of eager fans covering an age range spanning at least three decades! After dutifully posing for photographs, chatting to their ecstatic fans and signing autographs the lads were ushered into the grounds to prepare for the first heat. Here are the details of the players for Team Darkness:
Justin Hawkins of The Darkness
Daniel Hawkins of The Darkness
Frankie Poullain of The Darkness – out due to injury, replaced by Lawrence Hannah
Harvey – of So Solid Crew, T4 Sunday and former youth team footballer
Ralf Little – of The Royle Family and 2 Pints of Lager and a packet of crisps
John Quinn – Team captain
John Aldridge – former Liverpool F.C. player
Terry Rice – Goalkeeper for Team Darkness
Dougie Bruce – of Sony Music
Jonathan Gent – Artist
Simon Donald – of Viz magazine
Managed by Mike McCormack Team Darkness were led to victory after a fantastic day’s football. Cheered on by drummer Ed Graham and manager Sue Whitehouse the Hawkins brothers put on a fine display of friendly football between signing autographs for fans at the front of the lower stands. Justin managed to sneak in plenty of cheeky cigarette breaks and took to wearing a leather jacket to complement his strip nicely between heats! So here is how the boys got on during each group match.
Teams Half Time Score Full Time Score Goals Players/ Commentary
Group Match One Team Darkness vs The Zutons 3 – 1 6 – 1 Harvey (3) Bruce (2) Jus Hawkins (1) Rice, Bruce, Quinn, Dan Hawkins, Harvey, Aldridge.
Harvey started off the pace in attacking position with Aldridge, with Bruce and Quinn also playing strongly and Dan Hawkins midfield. Harvey scored the first goal with the Zutons equalizing early in the game, and picked up another two goals before half time.
Jus Hawkins was brought on in place of Dan Hawkins for the second half and Little replaced Quinn. Bruce scored and shortly afterwards Jus Hawkins turned the heat up with a further goal. Donald was brought into the game late in place of Harvey just before Bruce scored and left Team Darkness up on the Zutons by a modest five goals!
Group Match Two Team Darkness vs Iron Maiden
1 – 1 3 – 1 Harvey (1)
Hannah (1)
Aldridge (1) Rice, Bruce, Quinn, Dan Hawkins, Harvey, Aldridge.
No scoring by Team Darkness early in the match, substitution: Little for Quinn. Iron Maiden scored the first goal, and Dan Hawkins immediately got the ball to Harvey who wasted no time in equalizing.
Second half – Hannah was brought on and just when it was looking like a possible draw he scored against Maiden bringing Team Darkness into the lead. A shot from Bruce was saved by Maiden’s keeper, however Aldridge managed to sneak one in to extend the lead. Jus Hawkins was brought on as substitute for Dan Hawkins towards the end of the game.
Group Match three Team Darkness vs Goldie Lookin’ Chain
3 – 0 5 – 0 Quinn (1)
Harvey (1)
Jus Hawkins (1)
Gent (1)
Donald (1) Rice, Bruce, Quinn, Dan Hawkins, Harvey, Aldridge.
An early score by Quinn set Team Darkness off on a good footing, however Goldie Lookin’ Chain could have been on better form and didn’t show much in the way of defense. Jus Hawkins was brought on in place of Dan Hawkins before Harvey scored the second goal followed by Jus Hawkins’ third.
At half time substitutions were Gent for Harvey, Little for Bruce and Donald or Aldridge. Goals were scored by Gent and shortly after by Donald leaving a five nil victory and egg on the face of their opponents.
Quarter Final Team Darkness vs Six Pistols 4 – 0 8 – 0 Bruce (1)
Harvey (2)
Little (1)
Jus Hawkins (2)
Dan Hawkins (2)
Rice, Hannah, Bruce, Little, Harvey, Aldridge.
Bruce scored early closely followed by a goal from Harvey and a third from Little. Harvey made it four before half time without so much as a threat from the opposition.
Substitutions: Jus Hawkins was brought on for Harvey and Dan Hawkins for Aldridge, allowing each of them to net a further two goals before the end whistle was blown.
Semi Final
Team Darkness vs VS 3 – 1 7 – 2 Harvey (3)
Bruce (1)
Aldridge (1)
Jus Hawkins (2) Rice, Hannah, Bruce, Little, Harvey, Aldridge.
A more even match at last for Team Darkness! VS proved to be challenging opponents at the start of the semi final, and it was Harvey who managed to bag the first goal for Team Darkness. VS soon equalized though, and Harvey hit back with a little help from his teammates and knocked in another. Bruce then drove another goal home to make the team two goals up at half time.
VS were the first to score after half time and it was up to Aldridge to bring Team Darkness back up to a two-goal lead. Harvey scored a tremendous goal to widen the lead further. Next it was all change as substitutions were made late in the game – Quinn replaced Bruce, Jus Hawkins for Harvey, Dan Hawkins for Aldridge and Donald for Hannah. Team Darkness had already won a place in the final but this didn’t stop Jus Hawkins from netting another two before the whistle.
Final
Team Darkness vs McFadden 2 – 0 4 – 1 Bruce (2)
Harvey (1)
Dan Hawkins (1) Rice, Hannah, Bruce, Little, Harvey, Aldridge.
The final began just as Dan Hawkins was retrieved by manager Sue after he disappeared to sign autographs for the crowd! The first half proved to be difficult with attempts at the goal from Harvey and Aldridge weren’t quite on target. Bruce managed to eventually score the first goal and it was over to Harvey to slam in a second. For the remainder of the first half team McFadden played well and allowed our lads no further scoring opportunities.
Soon into the second half Bruce scored his second goal of the match to the cheers of the Darkness supporters before he was substituted for Dan Hawkins. Harvey was replaced by Jus Hawkins and Hannah was brought onto the pitch for Quinn. Dan Hawkins belted the ball into the net as soon as he got onto the pitch just before a return goal from McFadden. Donald and Gent saw the game to the end in place of Aldridge and Little, and our lads saw the final minutes through until the final whistle and supreme victory for Team Darkness. They were presented with their winner’s cup and Dan Hawkins shook and popped open a bottle of champagne before their ecstatic supporters!
So all in all a great day! Victory for Team Darkness, fans with new autographs and photos! My only sadness during the afternoon was that it took me almost half an hour to queue for a pint of lager!
Emma