After the cancellation of last month's fixture due to snow, it was glorious sunshine for the Wanderers to go in search of points today in the Greater Manchester 60+ WF league at Heywood Sports Village.
Suffering from a few enforced absences we took a bare bones squad of six for this six-a-side league, consisting of:
Tony Baker, David Holbrow, John Myatt, Niall O'Donnell, Steve Stoker, Michelle Walker.
After a swift Easter holiday aided journey across the M62 we arrived very early and had the luxury of watching two of our opponents play, before our first scheduled match.
We started against Fleetwood Town Flyers who we battered in a 0-0 draw. John, Dave and Tony all hit the post and Michelle hit the cross bar. Seventh choice keeper NOD didn't touch the ball and Steve Stoker was in fine form as sweeper.
Wanderers second game was against league leaders Roach Dynamos and we were again the dominant side only to concede a sucker punch with a breakaway goal with one minute remaining when we were pressing for the victory. A disappointing 0-1 defeat.
Our third game against Bolton Wanderers Walkers saw us against the best organised team but it suddenly all clicked.
Tony had a great game with Michelle and John feeding him the ball and David benefitted from all the space to score 2 beauties. He made it a fine hat-trick when Tony tempted the keeper out of the box.
A 3-0 victory despite Steve spending four minutes in the Sin Bin alongside a pair of Bolton players - cosy!!!
After a forty minute break our final game of the day against Rochdale was also a feisty affair with Steve having a battle but again Tony was in fine form and fired in an early goal.
The match was settled when Steve broke from defence and struck home a shot as he fell to the floor (for the 5/6/7th time in the day) giving us a 2-0 victory.
NOD had little to do but shout and organise and the team covered ground and retained possession expertly.
In summary we should have had 10 points but ended up with 7, so a decent day, but we lost ground on Roach Dynamos who we need to beat next time out.
P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | |
Roach Dynamos | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 17 |
Wakefield Wanderers | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
Bolton Wanderers Walkers | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 12 |
Fleetwood Town Flyers | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
Rochdale Striders | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | -9 | 1 |
Niall O'Donnell
(7th Choice Keeper)
http://manchesterwalkingfootball.uk/fixtures-results-tables/over-60s-league/