| Season 2003/04 |
| Temple Fortune's Old Boys Team |
| Maccabi Masters League |
Season 2003/04 proved to be a most arduous campaign for the Club for all three teams. The First Team finished bottom of the M(S)FL Second Division whilst the Second Team fared one place better off in the Third Division, both sides doomed to relegation from their respective sections.
Even the Old Boys had a poor campaign in the Maccabi Masters League's main division, slumping to bottom place - lower even than the hapless Clayhall Park Casuals who had held up the league the previous season.
The first part of the inaugural 2-phase Masters League was always going to be tough, in that the leading four - namely Marshside & Glenthorne, London Maccabi Lions, North West Neasden and EDRS Stonegrove - were decidedly too strong for the rest. Brady Maccabi strangely decided to join the top set after the completion of the first phase, leaving the remaining five to compete evenly for the Second Division title. But things did not auger well for Temple Fortune Old Boys, who completed the first phase by suffering five consecutive defeats without scoring a single goal! All in all, things did not look promising come the start of the second phase in February 2004.
Ashlodge, who had beaten Fortune 2-0 in phase 1 a couple of months previously, were the first opponents in phase 2. But the Old Boys excelled to a surprise victory, scoring four goals through Steve Feiger, Jeremy Fess, Alan Davidoff and Nigel Grunberg to finally break the awful goalless sequence. The second match saw Clayhall Park Casuals keen to add to their very first Masters win (in the phase 1 opening match against Temple Fortune in September). But this time, revenge was sweet as Temple Fortune swept them aside by the same score as Ashlodge were defeated - 4-2. Again there were four different scorers - Adam Davis, Steve Feiger, Jeremy Fess and Peter Kyte all netting.
Two consecutive victories took Fortune to the top of Division 2 but Norstar Old Boys ended the mini-run thanks to an exciting 6-4 win in match 3. Despite a Jeremy Fess hat-trick and one from Adam Davis, the Old Boys lost for the first time since mid-January. Worse was to follow in the next fixture as Ashlodge avenged the earlier defeat with an emphatic 6-2, Adam Davis and Nigel Grunberg scoring for Fortune. With a 50% record and a place half-way in Division 2, the Old Boys had to collect a result in the return with Norstar to keep in the running. The Yellows put up a brave battle and certainly deserved a share of the spoils only to be cruelly denied by a last minute Norstar winner. Allon Schick-Maier had netted Fortune's lone goal in the 2-1 loss.
So the sixth match needed a Fortune victory to even the league record again - fortunately Clayhall were the opposition again, and another 4-2 success gave Fortune a much-needed boost. The goalscorers were Alan Davidoff, Jeremy Fess, Allon Schick-Maier and Bryan Silver. The final two matches were back to back fixtures against Faithfold, one at Wingate & Finchley's neat stadium. For the fifth time in seven Div.2 games, Temple Fortune netted four goals - through Bryan Silver (3) and Adam Davis - but had to be content with a draw. Which meant that the Old Boys required a win to definitely leap-frog Faithfold and finish in a higher position. One week after the entertaining 4-4 draw, the two teams again cancelled each other out and had to settle for a 1-1 draw this time, Nigel Grunberg scoring for Fortune. It was Fortune's fourth draw in six matches against Faithfold in the Masters League.
With Faithfold - level on points with the Old Boys - playing Norstar and Ashlodge needing one point against bottom-placed Clayhall in the final fixtures, it looked likely that Temple Fortune would finish in fourth place out of the five teams in the Second Division. But Faithfold lost sufficiently enough to allow Temple Fortune the better position on goal difference. And, shock of all shocks, Ashlodge amazingly lost 3-1 to Clayhall, which denied them the chance to grab second place.
For the second season in succession, Jeremy Fess captured the Old Boys Team Player of the Year award, whilst midfielder Bryan Silver finished as top scorer overall in all matches, with four of his goals coming in the 8-match Division 2 campaign, two fewer than Fess.
This most unpredictable of finishes to the 2003/04 season meant that Temple Fortune had, against all the odds, actually finished as Maccabi Masters Football League Second Division runners-up! What had been a very poor season for the Club as a whole culminated in a creditable and satisfying conclusion, albeit in the small confines of a 5-team league. But it was a deserved reward for a team which had endured a disasterous opening phase yet stayed committed to the task of improvement, which was certainly fulfilled with a place on the Masters honours board.
