On the hottest day of the year so far and in temperatures of 30 degrees the Stamford Blacks and Reds took part in the Lincs FA festival at Christs Hospital School in Lincoln.
In group A the Reds had a slightly tougher draw than the Blacks in group B and results reflected that.
The Reds opened their group against Collingham Codgers and were unlucky to lose 1-0 in a pretty even game (from what I saw). After drawing the next against Lincoln they had a bit of a poor run before finishing up with another draw against Birchwood. Steve C tucked a lovely goal away in this one but was pulled up for running (harshly on this occassion in my opinion).
Talking to the lads and watching the last game, although well beaten in two of the games, the lads had the lions share of the ball in the other games but were not sharp enough in putting the ball in the back of the net.
The Blacks faired better. After a slow start they battled to a 3-2 against Welton. Trevor had a bit of a nightmare in the first half of this one, scoring an old goal and giving the ball away on a clearance for the second but stormed back in the rest of the tournament to save everything thrown at him.
Next up for the Blacks was Rippingale and Folkingham. R&F had got the better of the Stamford teams that they had played in the previous two tournaments but this was a very different team and the 1-0 win flattered them as we were well on top.
Then came our old rivals Boston United. Another tight game against them but Taff had his shooting boots on to notch both goals in a 2-1 win.
A change of referee (and a very belligerent one at that) meant a change of tactic as the new ref was ultra sensitive about running. He took a particular dislike to Will Bs walking stance, Will was as fast and as legal (One foot on the ground) as usual but the ref didn't like his movement at all. The game was reduced almost a to crawling football rather than walking football but this actually did us a favour as we switched to an almost three touch game and moved the ball around between us quicker.
As the afternoon wore on the heat was taking its toll but we seemed to cope a little better than some of the teams and we got stronger and stronger. Running out easy winners in the last two games.
So the Blacks finished with 100% record over the six games but as this was a festival, not a tournament, there was no knockout stage and no silverware for the club. A shame in some ways as the Blacks were flying in the heat!
Blacks:
Trevor Oliver, Taff Lovesey (capt), Paul Blakemore, Martin Lott, William Barrett, Kurt Garbutt
Reds:
Andy Walton, Angel Goumal, Steve Christie, Keith Bratt, Brian Dunkerley, Dave Barry (capt)
Results:
Blacks:
W 3-2 v Welton Imps
(Will B, Paul B, Martin L)
W 1-0 v Rippingale & Folkingham
(Taff L)
W 2-1 v Boston United B
(Taff L x 2)
W 3-0 v Spilsby B
(Will B x 2, Own Goal)
W 3-0 v Birchwood
(Will B, Martin L, Paul B)
W 4-0 v Long Bennington B
(Martin L x2, Will B, Kurt G)
Reds:
L 0-1 v Collingham
D 0-0 v Lincoln City
L 0-2 Spilsby A
L 0-1 Long Bennington A
L 0-3 Boston Untied A
D 0-0 Birchwood Leisure A
Comments