Strollers 50’s at Leverington

While Strollers Ladies were galavanting around Northamptonshire, I took a 50’s squad over to Leverington’s first charity tournament.

A relatively small lineup of teams were split into two groups of four in a competition/plate format.

Our opening game was against Heacham, where despite dominating play and having lots of scoring opportunities, we couldn’t find a goal. We succumbed to a late goal originating from a quickly taken sideline kick-in that appeared to be a rolling ball and not on the line. L0-1

Our second game was against Norwich City. After 5 minutes Strollers were on three not-walking offences. Nevertheless, it was Strollers who took the lead through a well-taken goal by Jason Fullman arriving late from deep. However, this appeared to be the cue for Strollers’ midfield to have a collective afternoon nap as Norwich equalised immediately then took the lead a couple of minutes later. L1-2

Leverington Tigers were up next. After beating them comfortably in last month’s PDFL, we were confident of a result and duly delivered a 4-0 win with goals from Jason, Rich Talby, and two from Pedro Molero. We did concede two penalties - the first for a handball which was classed as a DOGSO - next time I’ll just let the shot hit me in the face. That penalty was skewed wide. The second penalty, for not-walking, was saved by Steve Bavage-Crowson. W4-0

In our plate trophy knockout game, we played Leverington Lions. Again we dominated possession and created a few scoring opportunities. A win looked inevitable until we started racking up not-walking offences and sure enough, a fourth offence resulted in a penalty which was duly dispatched. L1-0

So lessons to be learned but it was an enjoyable day despite the damp weather.