Challenge Cup

A modern 400 capacity sport centre which was part of the Campus of Luhansk University.

The level of Luhansk (Ukraine) and Verias (Greece) were considerably higher than ours. We could only play our best handball but there was nothing we could do upset those two profesionnal teams made of so multinational players.

We had our chances against Varna and the score at half time (13-14) and 15 minutes before the end (19-17 for us) was evidence of our strong performance against the Bulgarians, but lack of bench options and fatigue caused us victory.

For every player, scoring a goal against such strong oppositions was a tremendous personal satisfaction just like scoring a goal after a combination was a fantastic feel for our amateur team. or making a 6m save for our goalkeepers.

Outside of the court, the closing ceremony with artists from the University and a special dinner with the presence of the University president was enjoyed by everyone.

The knee injury of Sylvain Zigoni in the 2nd half of the game against Luhansk, which required a trip to the local hospital.
Almost everybody catching the flu between the first and second game.

- Doctor Maksimenko Igor Georgievitch, head of Luhansk University's Olympic and professinal sport department, who was responsible for our team. We have never met anyone of such high stature being so caring towards us and making sure everything was always ok throughout our stay.

- All the 10+ interpretors, English Litterature students from Luhansk University and everybody in Ukraine who made us feel so good. We feel we have made friends for life.

We are improving as a club and this is nice to see, but we simply cannot catch up with the teams on the continent who are more technical, physical and knowledgable than us.

It is only with games played against those much superior teams that we can improve and raise the standard of handball in the UK. The more difficult games are played, the more skills are being picked up and then transferred to other teams in the Britain.
We have now some benchmarks and know we must improve our fitness, technique and concentration levels to take Manchester to the next level.

We were overwhelmed by people cheering "Manchester Manchester" from the stand, even though we kept losing the ball at times so easily due to fatigue. Also, in our 7 years of existence, we never heard so much noise when scoring a goal or when one of our keepers made a fantastic 6 meter save.

Finally, signing autographs for local fans after some of our strong performances was a lovely feeling, as well as being asked to swap jackets or shirt with opposite teams, clearly meaning we earned everyone's respect.

We would like to thank Stephen Jones as well as the England Handball Association for their support. Being able to offer EHA keyrings and pens to other teams in pre match handshakes was great, and highly appreciated by our opponents.

Finally, even though our squad number was badly affected by injuries and tournament location, Luhansk being 3 flights away and too expensive for many of our players due to the current economic conditions, we feel our 10 men team did give an oustanding performance and everybody in England can be proud of them.

We would like to recommend Ukraine as a country to visit and Luhansk in particular for their passion for sport, their warmth, their care and friendship. "Spassiba Luhansk, dakuji Ukrayna!"