Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Notts County, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday all participated in the competition. The Central Masters was split up into two groups Group A and group B with United being in Group B with Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday.
Group A were to kick-off the tournament with Derby County and Notts County battling it out. United were second up as we faced Leicester and started Group B. Goals from Groves and Philpott (2) were caught up by strikes from Todd and Bradshaw in the United camp. The Foxes however felt like adding one more to their goal tally which made the competitive game finish 2:4 to Leicester.
United's second encounter came against Sheffield Wednesday. The Steel City Derby held out of the Steel City finished a whopping 5:3 to the mighty Blades. Goals from Littlejohn (2), Todd (2) and Wayne Allison secured the thriller. McCarthy and McPhee (2) got the goals for the Owls.
The final game in group B was Leicester vs Sheffield Wednesday. If Wednesday beat the Foxes by 2 goals only then it would see United go through to the Regional Final. But that wasn't to be as Leicester gave Wednesday a double thrashing in the tournament with a 5:0 victory.
Forest were the winners in Group A while Leicester finished top trumps in Group B. A thought to be nail-biting final was wrapped up by major controversy. At the halfway mark it were 2:1 to Leicester. When the Foxes went on the attack they subsequently rebounded the ball off of a camera which ironically kept the ball in play which then saw Leicester bag a third goal.
Two more were added by the two time Grand Final winners which saw the score line end 5:1. Leicester City were crowned the Central Masters Champions in one of the all time most competitive Masters tournament of all time.
Group A
Team | Played | Points |
Nottingham Forest | 2 | 4 |
Derby County | 2 | 2 |
Notts County | 2 | 1 |
Group B
Team | Played | Points |
Leicester City | 2 | 6 |
Sheffield United | 2 | 3 |
Sheffield Wednesday | 2 | 0 |