Central Over 60’s Winners
The Angels Over 60s Blues Walking Football team took part in the Kent league finals against the three other best teams in the county on Sunday. Our opponents on the day were Bexley (who are serial winners of the Kent league, the Essex league and every National Competition. Their squad contained 4 World Cup winners, and 3 other full England internationals) and Woodnesborough (a long established team from East Kent with 2 of the country’s best players included).
Our first game was against Woodnesborough, serial winners of the Kent Eastern division for many years. It was an extremely tight game with both teams having periods of dominating possession but with no goal outcome in the first half.
Early in the second half a series of runs by Woodnesborough gave Steve Elliott the chance to put the Blues one up and his powerful shot gave us the lead. However, very shortly after, Gordon Ramsay was unfortunate to step into the area under pressure from an opposition forward and the resultant penalty bought the game level. The possession football carried on throughout the remainder of the game with few clear shots on target but those from Woodnesborough were easily dealt with by our ever reliable goalkeeper Mike Hurn. A 1-1 final score led to a penalty shootout and despite missing the first one, the Angels came through to win 4-3 with Mike Hurn making a tremendous save to give us the victory.
We were through to the final for the second successive season where our old adversaries Bexley were waiting. Again it was an extremely close match, but Bexley took the lead in the first half when an intricate movement left them through free on goal giving Mike Hurn no chance. Just after halftime we were rewarded another penalty for Bexley‘s running offences and Steve Elliott slammed the ball home again giving Bexley’s international goalkeeper Mickey Orme no chance.
With time running out both teams were pressured into overstretching themselves reaching for loose balls or to intercept passes and with these being identified as runs, Bexley took the lead with a penalty. Despite some tactical changes which produced more shots on their goal, Bexley hung on to give them the trophy yet again.
The Blues put on a determined performance in both games and for the second year running ended up as runner-up in the County competition, to add to their regional Division trophy which was also presented to the team.
Report from Glyn Hollands
Seated: Mike Hurn
