Out In The Cold Again*

According to our Sutton Landlords at St Helens Council, Summer begins in April. So SHWFC’s more sensitive souls who winter in the gym had to do some serious layering before their first outside session for 6 months. You could tell who they were, they were the ones with teeth chattering and knees knocking; looking as though they were about to go for one of those ‘traditional’ Boxing Day swims as various mad fools do. Ooh, it's bitter out!

As we were still in Easter Holiday mode numbers were down but we were still able to get 4 teams of 6 a side with Jeff Betty and Cockney Rebel on refereeing duties, all overseen by the benign eye of the night's photographer and money supremo, Les Meldrew.

The teams lined up as follows:-

White - Enoch, Chris 10P, David Lad, Steve C, Little John and Keith

Blue - Daz, Haggis, Jason, Grav, Lord Rainford and Citeh Geoff.

Green - Disco Deggs, Tom Stretch, Wickie, Simon Dad, Subbuteo Dave and Simon K

Red - Midweek Michelle, Kenny, Phil the Power, Andy Manager, Graham and Richard.

White started smartly with 2 wins and clean sheets in both their outings. A Chris 10P goal was enough to beat Red and then Chris scored again with Steve in a 2-0 win over Green This was after Dave Lad had to retire with a leg injury leaving White a man down for the remaining time

On the other pitch Blue also started off with 2 wins, although without the good fortune of clean sheets. They opened with a 3-2 win over Green, Daz 2 and Haggis giving them a good start but they were left hanging after first Simon (a superb finish) and then Subeteo Dave with almost the last kick of the game almost rescued a draw. History almost repeated itself in the next game, Daz with 2 and Haggis again the scorers, with Kenny replying for the Red 3-1 with a penalty the award which was described colourfully as a teensy-weensy bit debatable.

And so in the final matches the two undefeated teams met. Blue ended top dog with a 3-0 win but that doesn't tell the whole story. Despite being a man down White took the game to their opponents and were unlucky on several occasions, most notably when the ball came back off the bar Haggis pulled off two instinctive saves All this happening within the space of about 15 seconds. The goals came from Grav, Jason and Lord R (modestly)

On the other pitch Red forced a win, beating Green 3-2. Graham with 2 long range shots and Michelle, a well-placed effort from a tight angle Tom and Steve replying for Green

I shall leave the final word to Ref Jeff Betty who when forwarding the results from the games he reffed finished off with the following comment:-

“Some excellent football played in good spirits by all hand shakes all round at the end”

That's what we like to hear 🙂

Out In The Cold Again* Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Sam Cooke, Van Morrison, etc