The Hampton Walking Football team turned up at the Nene Valley Community Centre on the 22/1/2023 on a frosty morning, again, with the outside temperature reaching the heady heights normally seen in Alaska. However, with a strong squad of 11 players ready for another set of league fixtures against Huntingdom A, league leaders Netherton A and Whittlesey we were ready to face the new year.
We welcomed another new baller to our squad this week with Jonathan Thompson joining the ‘Old Guard’. Jonathan brings an athleticism to the side that we may have been missing. Tall, slight, in good physical condition and a pair of gold boots.
After collecting in all the ‘New Years’ resolutions it was time to pick the starting line up based on the players promises. Matt ‘the cat’ Bliszczak has joined pure gym to work on his reactions. Andrew ‘angry’ Allison has joined the A.A. (Angry Anonymous) promising to improve his disciplinary record. Andrew ‘the goals have dried up’ Wallman has brought some new shooting boots and finally Andy Frost promised to turn up for the last game!
So we kicked off against Huntingdon B and played some nice football with Richard ‘new year, new hip’ Talby scoring the first goal and Andy ‘new year, new knees’ Hovey scoring our second. Huntingdon did pull a goal back however we controlled the game to see out a quite comfortable 2-1 win.
After acclimatising to the weather with frozen beards, ear hair and nose hair we watched the next set of games before we had the ‘Big One’. The top of the league clash with Netherton A. We came into the weekend on the same points being separated by only 3 goals.
It lived up to the billing with both sides pushing to win the game. The Netherton keeper played a blinder saving four or five shots that would normally fly past a keeper with poor eyesight and a lack of movement. Then Netherton had their chance with ‘the cat’ flying to his left the ball took a deflection. With an outstretched orange boot ‘the cat’ managed to turn the ball around the post and the ‘A game’ that should have had loads of goals ended 0-0.
We now had an hour and half to wait for our final game so we had a great bacon and egg butty and a cup of tea and sat in the changing rooms until we could feel our feet once more.
At this point we had a bit of a squad change as Andy ‘Frosty’ Frost turned up to play as stated in his New Year’s resolution to play in frosty conditions, you couldn’t make it up. The tall, slight specimen of man ‘Jonathan Thompson’ with his gold boots had picked up both groin and hamstring injuries ruling him out of our final game. This was a shame as his debut games had gone well against good opposition.
So we left the heated, warm and cosy changing rooms and played our final game against Whittlesey and the break and the cold outside had got to us. We were a little dis-jointed, which is normal considering the age of the team and came in at half-time one nil down.
We re-organised at half-time and it was just the same? We had a goal disallowed and then on the 22nd day of the year Andrew ‘AA’ Allison was booked and sin binned for back chatting the ref. Not only had he broken his New Year’s resolution, broken his promises to his AA group, he also managed to do this whilst not being on the pitch watching from the sidelines.
Any how, Mark ‘first goal of the year’ Ansel-Crook scored in the last minute to grasp a draw from the jaws of defeat and the game ended 1-1. We got away with that one!
So we finished the first round of the reverse fixtures for the second half of the season in a new year with with most of the resolutions for 2023 still intact. And Tortoise Property have added £30 to the charity sponsorship kitty.
We look forward to reporting the exciting walking football results to you in 2023 and if you want to get involved come down to Beaumont Way, in Hampton at 7PM on a Monday night with £3, boots, shin pads and a smile.
Your winter football correspondent Mike ‘Jeff Stelling’ Matthews