Business Fives Scotland Final

Superb Spring Solutions Secure Scotland National Title in Glasgow

The best corporate football teams from across Scotland assembled in Glasgow on Thursday 7^th April to bring to a close a fantastic Business Fives Winter season and where 19 companies bid to be crowned National Champions.

With £5,000 in donations up for grabs stakes were high and the standard of play on the pitch matched that as 369 goals were scored across the 75 matches on the day.

With qualifying events taking place throughout Scotland in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Tayside and Forth Valley and over £127,000 raised for charity, teams were in confident mood having made it to the showpiece final.

The first bit of silverware was awarded to our Top Fundraisers as the team from Spring Solutions raised £355 for the West Lothian Foodbank to take home their first piece of silverware of the day.

On the pitch there was donations on offer for the Champions League winners and runners up, Europa League and Europa League Conference section winners.

Making their way to the Champions League quarter finals it was teams from Johnston Carmichael, Anderson Strathern, Spring Solutions, Nordex, Score Group, FES Group, Azets and Jones Whyte.

Our Edinburgh, Tayside and Aberdeen champions – Spring Solutions, Score Group and Azets respectively – all made it through to the semi-finals and were joined by Glasgow semi-finalists Anderson Strathern who were looking to go one better.

They managed that by winning a mammoth penalty shooting against Azets to set up a National Final meeting with Spring Solutions who edged out Score Group 3-2 in the other semi final after turning round a 2-1 deficit.

Having won our Glasgow event in November and our Edinburgh event in February, going unbeaten in both events it was Spring Solutions who ran out 4-1 winners to make it a treble of wins winning £3,073 for the West Lothian Foodbank to add to the £1,000 they had already won in donations at previous events.

Chris Cullen was once again singled out as man of the match, and it was no surprise as he scored a hattrick on the way to victory.

Anderson Strathern went home with runners-up medals and a princely £1,000 to show for their efforts with their chosen charity, SAMH benefitting.

With £750 up for grabs in the Europa League section there was still a lot to play for as teams made their way to the knockouts. Eventually that was whittled down to just four as Red Wing, Veitchi Interiors, Applus and Ogilvie Homes made it through to the semi finals.

Veitchi booked their final spot courtesy of a 4-2 win over Red Wing whilst Applus crept past Ogilvie Homes via a tense penalty shootout.

The final was full of goals but it was the team from Veitchi who ran out 5-2 winners to secure a £750 donation for CHAS. The team had already won the Europa League in Glasgow in November and are becoming specialists.

In the Europa Conference League Final, which was effectively a third place playoff, it was the Score Group team who won 5-3 over Azets to win a £500 donation for JDRF to add to the £500 they won at our Aberdeen event.

In other individual awards, the Top Goal Scorer award went to James Findlay who found the back of the net an impressive 27 times for FES Group. Our Player of the Tournament went to Ellie Shand from Hall Morrice who produced some great skills throughout the day.

Congratulations also to our Charity Raffle winners, Mike Innes and Jamie Rodgers, both from Hall Morrice. They won an overnight stay at Cameron House and a three-course meal at Gleneagles respectively!

The teams were then treated to some fantastically open and honest stories from former Wales, Arsenal, West Ham, Coventry, West Brom and Celtic striker, John Hartson at our drinks reception and prize presentation.

Business Fives will be back for our Summer Season in June and you can find out more here.