Meadowbrook Athletic Football Club’s highly successful season finally ended last weekend when manager Phil Collings, together with captain Ross Davis, was presented with the South Devon Football League Champions Cup for Division Three.

This has undoubtedly been one of Brook’s finest years since the club was formed over 50 years ago.

The team have significantly benefited from the arrival of some new players at the beginning of the season who, by the end of the campaign, had so successfully absorbed into the existing squad.

The success of Brook’s achievements can be measured by the statistics themselves. The team scored significantly more goals than any other team in the top five divisions of the SDFL and conceded fewer. With the team scoring 99 goals and only conceding 22, Brook’s goal gifference of 77 makes impressive reading.

There is no doubt that the skills of attacking forward Ben Bowhay played a vital part in Brook winning the Champions Trophy by contributing 38 of those goals.

In fact Bowhay’s individual tally made him the second most prolific goal-scorer of the 73 teams in the entire SDFL with the best goal scoring ratio in the third division.

At the other end of the pitch it was the experienced abilities and presence of goalie Adam Baker, together with the solid performances of the Brook defenders, who often ensured that a clean sheet was achieved when the final whistle was blown.

Despite highlighting the achievements of these two individuals, there is no doubt that it was the consistent commitment of the entire squad that ensured consistent success throughout such a weather-affected season.

The team’s mutually supportive ethos and complementary skills ensured that throughout the season each of the players contributed their part in ensuring such a successful league campaign.

The best example of that quality came at the end of the season when Brook faced four vital games in seven days, needing to do well to gain promotion.

They achieved that target magnificently by winning all four games and scoring 20 goals in the process. By doing so well they also beat off a determined challenge for the top spot by high-flying club Ashburton’s second team and thus won the prestigious League Cup. As one season ends preparations have already started for the next one as Brook now realistically look forward to the challenges that face them in the demanding second division of the SDFL.