Vintage Delighted with Win Over Spencer

Spencer Grandmasters 2 – 3 SHC Vintage

Team: Spencer, Harding, Hassan, White, Bamford, Eve, Burles, Beaney C, Molloy, Tripp, Hitch, Lowe - 8 changes again

Umpire: Spencer

Scorers: Lowe (2), Hitch

Player of the Match: Majid Hassan (according to the opposition!)

Very different to normal – no teas, no drinks but who cares – WE WON!!!

Selection was weird this week with players being available then suddenly not, and then one or two appearing out of the woodwork. In the end it was tight with Molly arriving just in time. Intended to play 343 but wise words from Eveo amended that to 433. The next advice was from Tim Bamford who informed the team that recently he had the job of marking the grey headed guy but he scored five goals (he himself corrected the statement to six later); perhaps luckily they were on opposite sides of the pitch but he still scored two!

We started carefully and worked hard – suddenly we started a new thing for Vintage – TEAMWORK. Everyone tried really hard for their teammates and we passed TO each other – it was good to watch. And it led to Lowe scoring a healthy goal (healthy meaning that it came from a team build up).

And wow, we did not relax and held our own and another goal came – this time from Hitch. David Burles (on bench) linked the goals by looking away both times the ball went in! Then GH scored his first with a reverse flick from the top of the D. Half time 2 – 1.

Half time often creates a slowdown but this time that was not the case. We carried on working as before. Some of the tackling from our back four was outstanding and the midfield got through a load of hard work. The front two kept their defence busy and that led to another Lowe goal.

With ten minutes to go GH did it again and Spencer seemed to believe they could take the game but we held out despite the efforts of their 12^th man! A good save by the keeper and an on-line stop by Tom White kept the result ours. But the final whistle during a short corner to them did not help the nerves.

A big shame that the bar was closed as Spencer have always been a pleasure to socialise with over a jug. Spencer may have voted Majid as MOM but, in my opinion, the nomination should be awarded to all of the team and they deserve it.