Angels O60 Blues 2-0 Maidstone O60
Our 60s Blues Walking Footballers entered their last game of the season knowing that to avoid defeat would give them the regional league top spot. But this was against Maidstone.
It was a nervous start from the Blues but Nigel Bragg put them ahead on five minutes and we continued to press forward from then on, having regular attacks and shots on goal. Unfortunately, inaccuracy and the woodwork were the winners.
Leading 1-0 at halftime we needed to be more relaxed on the ball and try to be more accurate with our passing to wear our opponents down. This worked and gradually, The Stones began to tire, but we still couldn’t get the ball in the net until a fourth running offence by Maidstone gave us a penalty. This was duly dispatched by Steve Elliott making it 2-0.
But the Angels still had time to give away a fourth running offence so Maidstone had the chance to pull a goal back from the penalty spot. Mike Hurn, our goalkeeper, who had had nothing to do the entire game stepped up to the mark parrying a rocket shot away and the game finished shortly thereafter.
This gave the Angels the points they needed to win the regional league and make the finals day on May 17. This capped a tremendous season for the Blues being undefeated throughout.
Report from Glyn Hollands
Front Row L-R: Craig Knowles, Steve Elliott, Mike Hurn, Alan Kane
Angels O50 11-0 Anchorians Panthers
On another very wet Saturday morning, the Tonbridge over 50s team turned out against Anchorians. After our last game on Monday v Bexley finished 2-2 with Bexley scoring with the last kick of the game, the team wanted to put that behind them.
Our opposition’s strength would be an unknown at the start as they often mix their teams up and they had suffered a 20-0 defeat earlier in the week. This time they brought in a number of their over 60s squad to add strength including Mel Sage who had played over 100 games for Gillingham and the same for Derby County in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.
It quickly became apparent that we could dominate play. Great control, passing to feet and above all, communication paid dividends with Graham Smith opening the scoring in the first couple of minutes. Thereafter, Andy Goodall, Graham Smith (2nd) Mark Mason and Darren Cray (2) made it six nil at halftime.
The second half followed the same script with Darren Cray getting his hat trick soon after the restart. To be fair to the opposition they came out to play and after 8 minutes of the second half created a chance that resulted in a shot from which Mark Cornish made a great double save although some of us were thinking the ball crossed the line. The ref disagreed to our relief. Mark Cornish had not really had anything to do all game so this save was a fantastic show of concentration.
At this point subs were made introducing Jason Orchard and David Norris. Our scoring continued with Darren Cray displaying why he is very much on the radar of the England WF team. He continued to annoy the Anchorians defence and got his 5th before Jason Orchard added another and then Darren finished things off with his 6th, a double hat trick. The final score 11-0 was a great bounce back after the disappointment of Monday’s last minute equaliser.
The team:- Mark Cornish, Karl (Grinner) Day, Graham Smith, Andy Goodall, Mark Mason, Darren Cray, Jason Orchard, David Norris, Craig Knowles (MGR)
