Match Report

Some would say it’s a bridge too far, others would say that it’s a journey down the M20 and I would just say we acquitted ourselves well against a team of ex-football league players.

For the first 10 minutes we struggled against a team that had obviously played at a very high level. They just seemed to be that extra bit quicker in both speed of foot and speed of thought. Still we held our own with Stewart, Steve and Ian trying to hold their expert forwards in check. Their late runs from midfield, especially from their “ex-prop forward”, caused us a lot of problems. Not surprisingly they soon took a 2 goal lead.

As the half progressed Toby H and Storkey began to cause them problems with their closing down of the “passes not to feet” that continued to be delivered from our tireless midfield. Pat had one of his Beckham like shots, which despite the cries of “get in” sailed over the bar.Toby in goal was having a problem with the ball holding up in the wind, well that was his excuse. Nothing to do with your speed off the mark is it Toby?

Colin had a smile on his face, as at last our players actually looked up and passed the ball out to their left. Trevor and Kevin continued their barnstorming runs down the wings in an effort to stretch the opposition defence. Alas this was all in vain as we gave away another sloppy goal to make the score 3-0.

4-0 became 5-0 as we tired chasing the expert runs of the team from Maidstone. Well at least we had our secret weapon to bring on. Time to introduce “Dave from Dartford”. What an exquisite first touch, missed it with his right foot, hit his standing foot, straight back to the keeper. Even the professionals from Maidstone looked mesmerised by the level of skill on display.

Time was running out to make an impact on the scoresheet. With minutes to go Storkey made a dash into their penalty area, only to be hacked down by their centre half. Up stepped “golden boots” Toby from between the posts to smash the penalty into the top right hand corner of the net. Just reward for the FOBG vets who had all run their hearts out against a far superior opposition.

The changing room was full of wobbly bellied 40 year olds who enjoyed the experience of playing against ex-football league players without looking out of place.

Just a footnote “thanks to all of those players who felt a trip to Maidstone was too far for a game of vets’ football! Rest assured the boys in red who played did not let you down”.