The Italian Branch of the Supporters Club were in action on Saturday at the Autumn Supporters Trophy in Milan. PNE GBS, Preston North End’s Italian fans, came out on top in the four-team competition with Leones Italianos (Athletic Bilbao) second, the Blues picking up the trophy for third place and the Italian Celts in fourth.
Simone Longo talked us through their matches: "The first game for our team was against Italian Celts and we put in a good performance to win 5 — 1 with a brace for our new addition Ennio Bovolenta and goals from the veteran Claudio Longo, captain for this tournament (his first goal for him in ITFCIB shirt), Davide Casati and Simone Longo.
"The game against PNE was very exciting and balanced. For Davide Casati there was one goal and one post, and the end of the match the final score was 2 — 1 to our opponents.
"The last game against Bilbao started good for our Blue boys, a goal from Bovolenta (top goalscorer for us) but in the last minutes of the game the team was very tired and suffered the return of the Athletic team who equalised four minutes from the end and in the last second of the match they found the winning goal: 2-1 to the Basque side. "At the end of the tournament we all went to drink some good beers at the Offside English pub!” As they have at their previous games, the Italian Branch were raising funds for the ITFC Charitable Trust with €90 on its way from the event. Jo-Ann Barker thanked them on behalf of the Trust: "Many thanks to the ITFC Italian Branch team members Fabio Cardillo Piccolino, Luca Capellini, Claudio Longo, Ennio Bovolenta, Simone Longo, Francesco Caldarola, Francesco Rezzonico and Davide Casati. Well done lads!”
Results Stats Team Table
-ITFC — Celtic 5 — 1
(C. Longo, Bovolenta (2), Casati, S.Longo)
-ITFC — PNE 1 — 2
(Casati)
-ITFC — Bilbao 1 — 2
(Bovolenta)
Points 3 (P 3, W 1, L2, GF 7, GA 5)
1 Fabio Cardillo Piccolino (GK), 2 Luca Capellini, 5 Claudio Longo (C), 6 Ennio Bovolenta, 7 Simone Longo, 8 Francesco Caldarola, 9 Francesco Rezzonico, 10 Davide Casati.
1 PNE 9 pts
2 Bilbao 6 pts
3 ITFC 3 pts
4 Celtic 0 ptsWhat to read next:
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