SOMETHING IN THE AIR ⚽St Helens Walking Football Weekly Report – 67 players. 40 goals. One brilliant club.
With Pete absent, I’ve volunteered to cobble together this week’s blog for your perusal, so I apologise in advance! Andy Houghton
It was another excellent turnout on Monday, with 44 hardy souls turning up for their weekly football fix.
There were returning faces, a very welcome comeback, plenty of goals, some excellent football — and one particular shot that may still be travelling towards Widnes.
👋 Welcome back!
It was great to see Speedo Mick, Jenko, Chris Gilly and Big Tony back with us.
And a particularly warm welcome back to Judy, who started playing with the club years ago when we were based at the Beacon.
Great to have you back, Judy!
🟢 MONDAY MORNING
The teams were divided into four teams of seven and two teams of eight, with three referees keeping us vaguely under control.
🔵 Blue 2–2 Green 🟢
There isn’t a great deal of detail about this game, other than a report of some fairly persistent barracking of the referee.
A bit of banter is part of football.
Constantly haranguing the referee isn’t.
We’re fortunate to have people willing to referee our games, so let’s make sure we give them the respect they deserve. 👏
That aside, the report back was that this was an excellent game, finishing 2–2.
Scorers
🔵 Blue — Tom, Baz
🟢 Green — Glen, Mike Mag
🟣 Purple 7–2 Gold 🟡
Now this was some game.
Purple were excellent and thoroughly deserved their 7–2 victory, with every player putting in what was described as their best-ever performance.
Pass and move.
Deadly finishing.
And some seriously impressive football.
There was also an impressive debut/return from Judy, who plainly knows what she’s doing!
Scorers
🟣 Purple — Gilly x2, Big Phil x3, Mark NR, Jim
🟡 Gold — Gervo x2
With the game at 4–2 and Gold beginning to get on top, Chris Gilly went in goal for Purple and apparently pulled off four worldies.
The game was allowed to flow brilliantly by guest referee Phil the Power.
Great job, Phil! 👏
And then came the moment that will probably be talked about for years.
Chris Gilly unleashed a shot that cleared:
the crossbar.
The fence.
The first row of trees.
Jodrell Bank apparently picked it up on its way to Widnes. 🚀
⚫ Black 5–3 Red 🔴
The final game, reffed in part by Jeff, paired Black and Red.
After allocating the designated colours for a 7v7 game, we somehow managed to line up 8 v 6.
Unbelievable.
Al Aldo moved onto the Red team to even things up.
Red led 2–1 at half-time, but unfortunately Al twisted his ankle and had to leave the pitch.
Enter Jeff, who kindly volunteered to both play and referee.
Black then upped their game, knocking the ball around and working for each other to turn the match around and eventually win 5–3.
Scorers
⚫ Black — Mike Tomo x2, Sheila Lady Darwin, Chris Kel, Speedo Mick
🔴 Red — Dave Robbo x2, Grav
Another excellent game.
Another excellent morning.
👏 ANOTHER FANTASTIC MORNING
Three games.
17 goals.
44 players.
Some excellent football.
Some returning faces.
A welcome new/returning player in Judy.
Three referees keeping things moving.
And, as always, plenty of material for the blog.
Thanks to everyone who played, refereed, organised and generally contributed to another brilliant morning of walking football at St Helens.
And a reminder to everyone:
Keep the banter. Keep the competition. Keep the football. And give the referees the respect they deserve.
🎵 THIS WEEK’S SOUNDTRACK
Pete normally chooses the song.
In his absence, there’s only one possible choice.
In tribute to Chris Gilly’s spectacular attempt at launching a football into orbit…
🎵 Something in the Air — Thunderclap Newman
Released in 1969.
And, judging by that shot, there may still be something of it in the air.
🌙 NOW ON TO WEDNESDAY NIGHT…
And this is where things took a rather different turn.
For the first time this season, the Champions League affected our turnout.
We had 21 players, one referee and one supporter/ball boy.
Thanks to Phil the Cat for doing a great job. 👏
The teams
⚪ White — Chris 10P, Si, Grav, Jim, Eamon
🟣 Lilac — Sully, Ian Harding, Paul Winny, Joe, Mike Tomo
🔵 UBlue — Me, Gaz, Neil, Degsy, Speedo Mick
🩷 Pink — Lee Willo, Jason, Dougie, Haggis, Chris 4G
We also welcomed newbie Lee Bridgwater, who played for Blue in the first half before switching to Pink for the second.
And what an impact she made…
🔵 Blue 0–1 Pink 🩷
Tonight we had two brilliant games for completely opposite reasons.
First up was Blue v Pink — superbly refereed by Jeff.
For 58 minutes, this game had 0–0 written all over it.
Not for the want of effort.
The defences were simply on top, with some excellent saves from Big Gaz keeping the scores level.
Then, with just two minutes remaining, Chris G picked up a loose ball around 20 yards out and bent an absolute pearler into the top corner.
A fantastic goal befitting a fantastic game. ⚽🔥
Lee Willo backed up his debut with another sublime performance.
And making her debut was Lee Bridgwater.
With 11 players available, Lee played the first half for Blue and the second for Pink.
She made an instant impact, showing a fine touch and an excellent awareness of her positioning.
A brilliant start, Lee. Welcome to the club! 👏
Jeff told me afterwards that it had been a pleasure to referee the game because of the atmosphere in which it was played.
Very little running.
No arguments.
And plenty of honesty.
Just football.
An enjoyable way to spend a Wednesday evening.
⚪ White 12–11 Lilac 🟣
And then…
Well, this was different.
By complete contrast, the game between Lilac and White produced an avalanche of goals.
A massive thanks to Chris 10P for playing, refereeing and sending me his report from the game.
Originally, I was told the score had finished 11–10.
I was going to be a smart-butt and point out that this would be 3–2 in the binary system.
Sadly, I was informed wrongly.
The actual score?
12–11.
Yes.
Twenty-three goals.
I think we can safely say the defenders had the night off.
👏 The stuff that matters
There are a couple of things from Wednesday that really pleased me — and neither has anything to do with the football.
Firstly, even though the kids are back and are in no rush to vacate the pitches, we’re getting ourselves organised and actually getting going remarkably quickly.
Secondly, the speed at which people are now volunteering to wash the tops has been brilliant.
These things might sound small, but they’re exactly what makes a club work.
So, well done everyone. 👏
⚽ 67 players. 40 goals. One brilliant club.
So there we have it.
From Monday’s 44 players and 17 goals to Wednesday’s 21 players and 23 goals in one game alone.
We’ve had returning players, a new player, excellent refereeing, brilliant football, a few worldies, one spectacular shot and enough goals to keep the goalkeepers awake for a while.
Most importantly, we’ve had another couple of sessions where people have turned up, played football, had a laugh and contributed to making the club what it is.
That’s what St Helens Walking Football is all about.
See you on the pitch. 👊
🎵 And Pete’s song tradition lives on…
Given the frankly ridiculous number of goals being lashed in on Wednesday night, this week’s soundtrack could only be:
🎵 “Bang Bang” — Cher
Apparently, the goals weren’t the only things going bang.
WANT TO JOIN US ? Fancy getting back into football?
Whether you've played all your life or haven't kicked a ball for decades St Helens Walking Football Club welcomes new players.
Come along and meet the team and give it a go.
Find out more about St Helens Walking Football Club and how to join us
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