60s Whites battle on

6th November Greater Manchester Walking Football League Over 60’s Division 1 played at Heywood Sports Village

Our intrepid match day reporters Keith Bibby (International Duty), Ian McKinnon and Kev Bates (playing squad) were unavailable to report on the day’s events so a member of the Relic’s supporters’ club was press ganged into duty, in reality asked politely but press ganged sounds so much better. Apologies for any errors or omissions

With almost perfect playing conditions on this exceptionally mild autumn day with a gentle SE breeze expectations were high amongst this strong 9 man Whites squad albeit they were facing 4 of the top 5 teams in this particularly difficult division

Manager: Ken Buggie. Squad: Eddy Ford (GK), Graham Walton (C), Tony Greenall, Kevin Amos, Ian McKinnon, Danny Mitton, Dave Lutkevitch, Kevin Bates, Mark Evans.

First game against Fleetwood Town Flyers. Subs Danny, Mark and Kev B

Relics:  4 shots of which 3 on target. Final Score 1 – 1

The game couldn’t have got off to a worse start, in the 1st serious attack launched by Fleetwood their forward on the edge of the box produced a good turn and 1st time shot low into the bottom corner leaving Eddy with no chance of producing a save. Fleetwood continued to dominate the early possession and had shots saved by Eddy and blocked by Tony. Relics then started to introduce some authority into the game with some pinpoint passing between all the players, all of this possession eventually produced an opportunity for Graham from the left side of the goal, his well struck shot appeared to have been parried away to safety by the keeper only for Dave L to sneak in at the far post to hit a 1st time shot into the narrowest of margins to produce an excellent equalising goal. The game continued with some flowing passing football from both teams, the referee gave a contested throw in to Fleetwood for Tony to loudly dispute, this was repeated moments later and again the decision going Fleetwood’s way much to Tony’s disgust, the ball then went out once again and the Relics were awarded the throw in much to Tony’s delight, his cheers echoed around the ground and received a round of applause from the watching spectators. The Relics continued to improve and pinned Fleetwood into their own half with some good pressing play. Tense closing moments with both teams on 3 fouls due to the ref appearing to punish the slightest infringement whilst allowing blatant fouls by both teams to go unpunished and a late Fleetwood shot blocked by Kev A. Final score 1 – 1 with the Relics unlucky to come away with just 1 point

Second Game Wakefield Wanderers. Subs Dave, Ian, Tony

Relics: 2 shots on target. Final Score 0 – 0

As the Wakefield players appeared on the pitch I thought they had sent a basketball team in error, they are an incredibly tall team, what do they feed them over in Yorkshire? Perhaps they were given free school milk long before us poor waifs brought up in our Lancastrian mill towns. In this modern day War of the Roses the historians amongst us were hoping for the repeat of the 1640 Battle of Wakefield when the Yorkists were finally defeated, alas this was not to be. The match was completely dominated by Wakefield, wave after wave of neat passing moves usually resulting in shots at goal and skillful close control by their players. Eddy was excellent in goal, it is no exaggeration to say that he made at least 5 quality saves that would have beaten most keepers, the guys in front of him worked hard and blocked shots to keep out the marauding Wanderers. In between Wakefield domination the Relics did put together one or two moves of their own resulting in blocked shots from both Danny and Graham. Final score 0 – 0 a well deserved point against quality opponents 

Third Game Blackpool Senior Seasiders Subs Kev A, Kev B, Danny

Relics: 4 shots, 3 on target Final Score Lost 1 – 0

The start of the game was delayed as both teams appeared wearing white shirts, after some discussion over who is the home team and who should wear bibs it was agreed that the Seasiders would wear Orange bibs which to be fair matched the stripes on their shorts, a couple of their players opted to wear their bibs back to front in what could be construed as a deliberate attempt to confuse the referee as to which way they were running. The change took so long that the referee decided to blow the final whistle much to the relief of manager Ken who said “we’ll take that”. Blackpool started well with a neat passing move resulting in a shot well saved by Eddy, a further shot was blocked by Tony which deflected onto the bar. Relics turn to put a neat passing move resulted in Mark narrowly shooting wide, again another good move resulted in Dave being penalised for running as he neared the goal. Yet another delay, this time because the Blackpool players complained that the ball was too soft. Although Blackpool were on top producing more blocked shots and saves from Eddy the Relics still had their moments with shots from both Mark and Graham. In the final minute tragedy struck, a Relics attack was broken down by Blackpool, their player stole the ball and moved quickly forward, he really did appear to be running, he squared the ball for a team mate to hammer into the roof of the net. Players and spectators alike were gutted, a point against a very good Blackpool team would have been well deserved. Final score lost 1 – 0

Fourth Game Manchester Old Boys Subs Graham, Mark, Ian

Relics 3 shots, 1 on target Final Score 0 – 0

Manchester set off on the front foot with an early shot saved by Eddy, they then had a goal quite rightly disallowed due to running by their number 10. There followed a controversial moment, Kev A indicated to the bench and the referee that he was injured and needed to be replaced, the ref refused to stop the game much to the disgust of Manager Ken who let his feelings be known only to receive stern talking too by the ref, Ian eventually was allowed on as a substitute. As the game progressed Dave L intercepted a pass but his shot was wide of the goal, later the Relics were awarded a free kick which resulted in Ian having a shot at goal. There followed some poor defending from Bury resulting in a chance for Manchester that was well saved by Eddy. Late in the game good possession from Ian and a through pass to Kev B whose low shot was blocked by a defender. The final score of 0 – 0 was on balance probably a fair result

Final Game Winstanley Walkers Subs Dave, Tony, Kev B

Relics 4 shots, 3 on target Final Score Lost 1 – 0

A strong start by the Relics, a passing move involving all outfield players resulted in a shot from Mark saved by the keeper, Bury then played the ball efficiently from the back to give Graham an opportunity of a shot that was narrowly wide. Winstanley began to take control but their attacking play was kept at bay by good defending. Ouch, Ian took one for the team as the ball hit him straight in middle wicket, at least 5 of the watching crowd volunteered to do the cold sponge treatment, none could be found so it was up to Ian to take deep breaths and rub himself better. There were further attempts on goal from Mark and Ian but Winstanley were fully in control, a tiring Bury side were giving the ball away all too often in midfield and a resulting break down the left saw Winstanley score, there followed wave after wave of Winstanley attacks but shots were saved or blocked. The final score was a 1-0 defeat against a side whose 2nd in the league position reflected their overall play

A quick note regarding reporters Ian and Kev B, both desperate to make the headlines or at least match comments they asked me to point out the following:- Ian – “did you see my ballboy performance? He managed to return the ball to the next field with an ‘Av it’ Peter Kay punt. Kev B “I managed to save 5 worms from being trodden on” sceptics maintained that he moved the same worm 5 times

As ever excellent turnout for the Relics, Club Officials Keiran and Pat, spectators Keith H, Ken B, Andy R, Steve H, Match report Nev K

The 3 point return leaves the Whites in an uphill struggle to avoid the dreaded drop.

Manager Ken’s post match summary “Thanks for all the effort today lads for such a poor return of points after some good footy”. 

A Nev Kitchen report