THE Severnsiders from Upton travelled to Holland to take part in the annual Amsterdam Invitational hockey tournament and produced some impressive performances.

They caused a major upset topping their group and dumping out fellow countrymen, the Blackpool Casuals and The Frisco Baysiders as well as highly fancied German outfit HC Munchen.

The tournament then progressed to a knock-out phase where they overturned a 2-0 first half scoreline against Royal Heerenveen to romp home 6-2 winners with Eddie Cope, Rob Dogg, Fred Londonburg, Rob Heeley and a brace from Roy Barnes sealing a comprehensive victory.

At the quarter-final stage The Severnsiders cruised past Borussia Wolfsburg HC 4-1 with Rich Scott scoring his 100th goal for the club.

Dogg brothers Paul and Rob where both on target as was the free-scoring Chris Chiltern.

The victory was only marred by the horrific facial injuries suffered by Eddie Cope who it was feared had played his last game of the tournament.

By now the Severnsiders had an alarmingly long injury list after Justin Morton, who was influential in the group stages, was ruled out after a slip in the shower and Rich Scott's neck was in a brace following a sickening clash of heads with team-mate Paul Pickering.

The tourists couldn't have been in a worse state of readiness for the all-important semi-final against hosts and eventual winners KVB Amsterdam.

Rich Cope opened the scoring in the first minute but the Severnsiders soon found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline.

Dbutante Matt Bookham was introduced after the break and made an immediate impact by bagging a brace inside just three minutes as the hosts where caught napping.

Then disaster struck when skipper Ade Pratley pulled up with hamstring problem and the visitors where without any fit replacements.

This meant Eddie Cope was thrown back in to game, despite carrying 25 stitches to his forehead.

With just seven minutes remaining it looked as though the team from England where on the verge of securing a famous victory, but that was denied when Jeremy Westlife was adjudged to have handled in the 'D'.

The hosts duly slotted home the resulting flick.

The match went into extra time with the patched up Eddie Cope equalising before the ever-present Fred Londonburg snatched the lead to take the score to 4-5.

But fate dealt a cruel hand and the victory wasn't to be as the locals equalised and sent the game to nail-biting penalty shoot out.

Paul Dogg, Dr Rich Watkins, Mark Reay, Roy Barnes and Craig Dee all scored from the spot, but with the Severnsiders needing to score, Jeremy Westlife fired over to end the dreams for another year and send the underdogs crashing out of the tournament.