The Professional Services heat of Business Fives indoor winter season took place at the SoccerWorld venue in Glasgow on Thursday.  16 companies from across Glasgow took place and battled it out for their place in the national final at the Oriam Centre on February 9^th.

The heat was sponsored by managed business communications firm, Difference Corp and finished with a Q & A session with former players Tom Boyd and Ally Dawson.

Ally Dawson currently works for Business Fives charity partner, Street Soccer Scotland and was on hand to tell the participants about the fantastic work the charity is currently involved in supporting positive change through football.  Business Fives is supporting their efforts with ten per cent of proceeds from the national tournament going towards the charity.

Both ex-professionals have had the privilege of captaining their clubs in league winning seasons with Ally Dawson highlighting the Scottish Cup victory against Dundee Utd in a replay as a career high.   For Tom Boyd it was the title winning season of 98 that sticks in his mind as a treasured memory.

The tournament group stages proved tight encounters with 3 teams from AC Whyte topping their groups, engineering firm Atkins finished top of the pile in the remaining group.

Group A’s opening fixture set the tone for the round robin stages with Atkins coming from one goal behind to beat Aviva 4-2, with Aviva eventually going on to reach second place to take them through to the quarter finals on the day.  It was Cordia Services who narrowly missed out, finishing 3^rd with customer loyalty firm Swipii propping up the bottom of the table after the 3 fixtures.

Over in Group B, where Business Fives was trialling a new ball from local supplier, Bala Sports, Village Hotel Club set the early pace over coming TLT Solicitors and Graham + Sibbald to eventually get out of the group in second place just behind AC Whyte team 1.

Iomart provided the stiffest competition in group C beating ACCA Scotland and ofgem to book their place in the quarter finals.

The remaining group was a much tighter affair with Clark Contracts squeezing past RSM UK on goal difference having drawn 2 all in their head to head fixture. Engineers, Rybka scoring 2 goals against Clark Contracts but not enough to register a win.

The quarter finals we’re high scoring with 20 goals across the 4 matches.  The pick of the fixtures was Clark Contracts 7-3 win, with Village Hotel Club and 2 teams from AC Whyte making up the semi-final line up.

The semi-finals proved similarly high scoring with 16 goals across the two games.  In the all company affair AC Whyte served up a fantastic spectacle with Mate Laczi scoring a double hat-trick on his way to picking up the top goal scorer award.  Clark Contracts got past Village Hotel club in the adjacent fixture to set up an encounter their earlier against group rivals.

The group stage match was a tight 3-2 affair and the final was a tightly fought battle with Clark Contracts going 2 goals up early on only to succumb to the goal scoring prowess of the organised team from AC Whyte who eventually ran out 7-3 winners in a game that was a lot closer than the score line suggests.  It was Macaulay Wilson from Clark Contracts who caught the eye of Ally Dawson who picked him out as the man of the match in the final.

The action continues later this month with our Housing and Property in Glasgow heat along with a Food, Drink and Hospitality heat in Edinburgh.

Business Fives has now launched its golf edition, Business Fours which is taking place at Craigielaw and the Scottish open venue, Dundonald Links with the national final at St Andrews Fairmont.