Wednesday Matchday 2 fixtures were held at Cherry Willingham, Lincoln. As the 70s consists of 4 teams only, we will certainly know each other by the time that Matchday 5 takes place in May at Grimsby.
Our first match was against Grimsby Ancient Mariners and resulted in a 1-0 defeat.
Strollers never reached the fluency of their previous meeting, passing was not as crisp and this was epitomised by Murrant’s cross-field pass that was intercepted by the Grimsby forward to score the only goal of the match. This happened midway through the first half, in theory plenty of time to recover, but the first goal in short duration games seem to be so much more important. The second half improved as Strollers created more chances, but they could not beat the Grimsby keeper.
The second game was against Lincoln Invictus; they had won their first match of the day and, as a result topped the overall table. Again, the match ended with a 1-0 defeat, but this was a very close encounter and the Invictus goal came near the end of the second half: one slip up with marking, one chance, one goal.
Our match with Boston United saw our only victory of the day, again 1-0 but in our favour. The goal came in the first half when Dunkerley passed inside to Kelby who placed his shot inside the near post. The match was again even after that as Strollers held out for the 3 points.
Special mention of Oliver in goals, who pulled off some excellent saves in all matches.
The challenge for Matchday 3 at Holbeach, is to get back to, and maintain, a better standard of play throughout. The four teams are evenly matched and it will be interesting to see how this league develops: for the time being it is Invictus that leads the pack.
Squad: Trevor Oliver, Tony Laughton, Col Murrant, Bob Lear, Bob Wood, Bob Wallace, Brian Dunkerley, David Kelby.