The Hampton Walking Football team turned up at the Nene Valley Community Centre on the 24/04/2023 on a beautiful, sunny morning for our final games of the 2022 / 2023 season. We were ready for another set of league fixtures against Harborough Town Green and South Lincs Steelers White.
We had a couple of goals that we set ourselves prior to kick off. We wanted to score a minimum of seven goals today which would mean we would reach £400.00 for our goals for charity through our sponsorship with Tortoise Property. Secondly, if results went or way and we won both games we could finish fourth in the league. A great achievement for us as a mixed ability team in a league that has improved immensely in quality this season.
We kicked off the fixtures today with a game against Harborough Town Green. And wow did we start! Flowing football played by a side with confidence and a desire to play well. Richard ‘Deano’ Deane found the net for his first goal for Hampton FC. And what a good goal it was, an arrowhead of a shot into the far corner, followed by our own goal machine Richard ‘scorchio’ Talby which put us into an early 2-0 lead. Then it happened! And I can only describe this as a Brazilian commentator.
Bliszczak to Peter’s, Peter’s to Talby, Talby to Julie Rahmu, Rahmu is clean through! The keeper steps forward closing the space in front of Rahmu down. Rahmu surprises the keeper by faking a shot and stepping to the left of the keeper and clipped the ball into the right hand corner. She turns to the fans, hands raised and hears the crowd scream Goooooooooooaaaaaaaal, Gooooooooaaaaaal, Gooooooooal, Scorchio!
This goal of the season was followed by another smooth finish by Richard ‘I started now’ Deane and two more from Richard ‘top scorer’ Talby meant we finished the game 6-2 winners. Only 1 more goal and one more game to win.
The bacon sandwich and cup of tea tasted good after such a good win as we prepared for our second game of the day with South Lincs Steelers White.
After such a good win the expected happened as two games never seem to be the same. We struggled in the first half as the Steelers played a game which concentrated on DEFENCE. Our passing was poor and therefore we missed the opportunity to play on the break when the opportunity arrived and then the inevitable happened and we found ourselves 1-0 down at half-time. Picture the scene, Matthew ‘the cat’ Bliszczak curled up purring in his goalmouth as a great shot hit the bottom right hand corner. The ‘cat’ has been outstanding this season so this was very much a ‘David Seamen’ moment and with further practice falling down, tripping over and roly poly’s in the close season we expect the ‘cat’ to have a similar career path to the great man himself who went from the mighty POSH all the way to the Arsenal.
There was no panic though at half-term as we knew what was required. One slick passing move just after half time saw Tim ‘I never shoot’ Peter’s score his first goal of the season which probably saw the first walking football husband and wife scorers in the same set of fixtures. On this occasion it seemed just right for them both to hug and kiss before returning for the kick-off, however it was not appropriate for Tim to take off his shirt and wave it above his head as children were present and there are some things that can not be unseen!
And the final goal of our season was scored by one of our most consistent performers Andy ‘Sheffield’ Hovey who gave us a WIN on our pools ticket as we finished the second half 2-1.
So we finished the day with 8 goals, two wins and a fourth place finish with 8 wins, 8 draws with only 2 loses. Tortoise Property, through the goals for charity sponsorship, have now contributed another £80 to the sponsorship pot bringing the total for the season to £410.
We would like to thank the organisers, referees and our fellow teams for an enjoyable season at the monthly walking football league for over 50’s. Also, we would like to thank everyone in the tea and food kiosk who have been polite, helpful and have delivered great quality tea and rolls.
Until next season.
As watched ‘Milton Levite’, todays Brazilian footballing correspondent ‘Scorchio’.