Day 2 of our double header saw the boys up against a strong England FA vets side that had inflicted a 6-4 defeat on the RAF last time we met. Whilst we had strengthened with a much larger squad than yesterday, England had lost a couple of their playmakers but we couldn’t take much solace from that. This is a very good side and we would have to bring our “A” game to the table in what would be, our last fixture before the rearranged Inter Service game against the Navy on 18th November in Portsmouth.
Now then, I’ve never done this before but I’m not going to write up much of this match at all. The reason being...the first half especially, is the best football I have ever seen from an RAF side at any level. If you don’t believe me, I am hoping that the video of the whole game, (I have the previous days game too to edit), will be available to watch during this coming week and you can judge for yourself. Whatever I say, or write, could not do justice to the passion, pace, pressure and power shown by the RAF Vets even if I had a thesaurus of superlatives.
Having just posted yesterday’s game report I have just seen Matt’s comment saying “good luck writing this one”. I’m not even going to try. There was very little wrong with this performance and if it hadn’t been for the England goalkeeper, it could easily have been 19 instead of the 9 that were scored!! Steve Norton can count himself mightily unlucky as on any other day with any other keeper he would have scored 6 or 7 and Dave Wanless can count himself mightily lucky as on any other day he would be taking Ulrika home after he managed to blaze over the bar from less than two yards with an open goal gaping and the keeper on the floor after yet another great save from a O’Hagan shot. That aside, this was a flawless display with the only downside, an injury to Gaz Seddon who turned his ankle and going by the picture on twitter of it, it looks painful and...long term...though we all wish him a speedy recovery.
As one of the England players said after the game, “we were on top for the first two and a half minutes but after that...?”
Special thanks to Yvonne Salkeld and Tim Lee who manned the Covid desk and tested everyone who went.
10’ Seddon 1-0
15’ Croft 2-0
32’ Norton 3-0
39’ Watkins 4-0
40’ Wanless 5-0
HT
51’ Norton 6-0
54’ Dixon 7-0
62’ Dixon 8-0
75’ Grove 9-0
FT
Congratulations to absolutely everyone who was there to witness this game...you all played a part but special mention to everyone of the playing squad. You did yourselves and the family proud and, having listened to my match commentary again (to enable me to write up my reports normally), I am once again sat open mouthed at what I witnessed.
BRING ON THE NAVY!!!