October 2026: A month of tours, trophies, and wins
October is traditionally a busy month for The Mighty Shane. The league really gets going, and there are national and international cups to go and win.
So let's recap, in chronological order.
An Aye Derby win
Da'an are often seen as the little brother to Shane. They view us as their biggest rivals, and we constantly forget they exist.
In football terms, they are Fulham: inoffensive, quaint, and never win anything. We are Chelsea: a footballing behemoth laden with history and trophies.
Unfortunately, they came into the game in better nick. They had beaten the champions 1-0 the previous week and brought a squad the size of a small army. We had managed a point against B52 and were looking for our first win, with some new players making their debuts.
The scene was set.
The game was a relatively scrappy affair. Our new players looked good and, thanks to the cool, calm head of our captain Mitch, we walked away with a 1-0 win courtesy of a last-minute penalty.
Read the full report here.
Keelung away
For the past four Octobers, we have visited the beautiful city of Keelung, a historic port city blessed with sunny weather and Vietnamese fishermen.
The Ocean Cup is the city's most prestigious football tournament, and we are now mainstays.
A 6am wake-up, orchestrated by pop sensation Big Sam, led a squad with far too much quality eastward. Amongst the good players were Oli, Tito, Juan Hector, Seb, Swifty, Zach, Sebastian, Big Ali, and the triple D's of Danny, Dan Engel, and Dan Dickie.
The group stage
The first game was against Team Vietnam, and we nicked a 1-1 draw, with Oli scoring and apparently missing a sitter. I was not there, so I cannot comment.
A win was needed in the second game, as the Keelung U12s had pulled out at the last minute. We started with two up top in Big Sam and Luke Venn, and went 1-0 up early through a tidy Sebastian finish. The forwards then decided to be profligate.
Before half time, Luke showed he had lost more than a yard, Big Sam steered a difficult half-volley wide, and Peter Balconio had to make a save.
We put the good players on at half time and were quickly rewarded with another Oli goal (?), before Balconio was left bamboozled by a twenty-yarder that bounced knee height in the middle of the goal. It was squeaky bum time, mainly because Big Sam managed to miss two open goals and Juan skewed a header wide after Seb tried to take his head off.
The dead rubber was a non-event, besides an absolutely outrageous free kick from Luke Venn that would earn him goal of the tournament.
The semi-final and final
The semi-final was an outrageous footballing display by Tito. He scored five goals in a dominant 7-1 victory. They ranged from fantastic team goals to long rangers, including one where he dummied a defender and then did exactly the same dummy to take the keeper out of the game.
The final was against Team Vietnam again, and we started outrageously well. Tito, Oli, Juan and Seb were on it from the get-go. Seb and Tito banged in early goals and we exerted control over the game in difficult conditions. We saw it out and won the cup, our third in a row.
Special shout-out to Balconio, Danny, Dan Dickie, Dan Engel, and Big Al, who got better as the tournament went on and kept a clean sheet in the final game.
The front players were all exceptional, but player of the day was Tito. He showed his class to take the tournament by the scruff of the neck and dominated both the semi-final and the final.
Vietnam away
Our yearly jaunt to Ho Chi Minh City got off to a terrible start. A typhoon was coming. The only two players with a brain cell to rub between them and change their flights were Jack Snart and Danish Pat.
Luckily, Balconio, Luke, Zach, Oli, and Daan's Ove all have interesting work schedules, so flew out days before it hit. We had also recruited the infamous Keelung Adam to add experience to a squad that was probably far younger than the over-30s tournament we had signed up for.
The typhoon left us with a skeleton crew. Danny, Swift, Big Sam, Lukas, and Jayke were all left behind, so the ultras were forced to lace up their boots.
Fortunately, Seb had shared his personal information with Peter Balconio and subsequently hundreds of others, and in the space of five minutes, became 30 years old.
Day one: a shit show
We lost the first game to a team that was awful. Balconio was lobbed, and we missed chance after chance without ever equalising.
In the second game their keeper should have been sent off but was not, and we then conspired to a 2-0 defeat.
The third game was against the eventual tournament winners. We got battered 3-1, but at least Seb scored.
At this point we were relegated to the Apex tournament. We also had a roundtable, and then a rectangular table. The eventual winners had this very good tactic of always having someone in the D, and we surmised that it was very important to always have someone in the D.
We decided Oli would be our man in the D. Unfortunately, he did not fully comprehend what that meant and continually dropped deep, away from the D.
In our last game of the day we turned it on against a terrible team and won 3-0, with Ove, Zach, and Oli scoring. The highlight was Balconio's amazing point blank save from a header.
We all went home disappointed from the first day, but licking our lips about the quality of opposition that lay ahead.
Day two: in the D
The following morning we played a relatively decent team from Hong Kong. Oli still did not understand the concept of being in the D.
Paul Wright was added to the ranks and made a run into the D to finish. Ove added a second from just inside the D. They pulled one back to cause squeaky bum time, but another was added from inside the D to secure a 3-1 win and a place in the final.
In the last group game, a challenge was set: could we get every outfield player on the scoresheet? Jack, Keelung Adam, and Luke were the three who had yet to bang. Luke was placed in the D, with Jack and Zach on either side.
Think prime Drogba, Kalou, and Malouda, with Keelung Adam as Michael Ballack. Luke gave a masterclass in being inside the D, scoring two and setting up four, all from inside the D. Adam scored a ripper, and Jack managed the worst and most questionable hat-trick in Shane's history.
The final
The final was against the Hong Kong team again. Oli still did not understand how to be inside the D.
Ove scored his fourth and Paul Wright his third to put us in control. Oli added a wonderful finish from outside the D, and Balconio kept a clean sheet despite Luke never tracking a runner.
Job done. Apex champions.
That was October
Two tours, two trophies, and a derby win over our little brothers. Not a bad month's work.
Along the way we had a brilliant time in both Keelung and Saigon, ate an irresponsible number of dodgy sausages, and watched Balconio concede dozens of goals that defied both physics and explanation.
We also learned the importance of being in the D, which is more than can be said for Oli.
Looking forward
If October is anything to go by, the rest of the season looks bright. The squad is deep, the spirits are high, and the trophy cabinet is filling up nicely.
With the weather cooling and the squad coming back together, there's every reason to believe this is only the start. Here's to more silverware, and fewer questionable footballing decisions.
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