Chairs was late on parade tonight for our first floodlit session at Les Academias. When he arrived he found 20 lads already warming up under the watchful eye of Hornets’ coach Massive Mark. The chairman was nonplussed. He said: ‘ Wow! This is very organised!’
And that’s the way Hastings United Walking Football Club rolls these days. Good turn-outs; fresh-smelling bibs; lots of banter and excellent football.
Tonight’s plan was to play Thursday night’s Hornets team together to give them a run-out before a tricky away indoor tussle with Burwash. But that meant that the Championship team would be playing against two other club teams largely drawn from the Premiership squad. It was a tough ask but The H’s rose to the occasion drawing one game and losing two by a solitary goal.
It was the Lemons’ night all told, scoring eight and conceding none over their five games. The Lemons struck first in match one beating the Pinks 1-0 before they had got into their stride. Super Dunc scored the only goal with a crafty flick shot which beat Tug who had made a great stop from the same player just seconds before. At the other end, Ricky played out of his skin to keep his team in this and every subsequent game.
In match two the Yellows bested the Hornets with a single Dunc goal again. The Cat had made four super stops before the right foot flick beat him down to his left. It was clear that MM was pulling his punches so as not to demoralize his Hornet players but The Cat still had to save them. And Super Dunc, all flick and no power, was obviously carrying an injury which kept his ferocious shot power down. But he made up in skill what he lacked in punch.
In game three the Lemons demolished the Pinks 3-nothing with well taken goals from Dunc, The Riddler and Mark. They were firing on all cylinders with El Jay playing well at the back but Rick still needed to save a brilliant shot from Russ and redeem himself with a point-blank save from Posh Andy after fluffing a back pass.
Match four saw the Hornets force a draw with the Pinks 1-1. The game opened up with a super strike from Legendary Rog from the best one-touch move of the night. But Coach Russ stepped up to coolly slot home a penalty. The Cat went full stretch low to his left but couldn’t keep the excellently placed kick out. He followed this up with the save of the night, palming away a thundering shot from Eastbourne Chris. Tug Parker denied Trigger twice at the other end. The little striker didn’t score tonight but will be hungry for a goal tomorrow in Robertsbridge.
In match five the Lemons stepped up again to beat the Hornets one-nil with Super Dunc again besting The Cat. At the other end Rick made five stops to give his team their victory.
The final game of the night was Lemons v Pinks and the luminous boys put three past Tug to maintain their unbeaten record. The Riddler scored first, then El Jay forced Tug into his only error of the evening, scoring with a cruel rebound, before the Riddler added his second and the Lemons’ third.
So much good football on show it’s hard to pick a man of the match tonight but for his four goals despite a limp, Super Dunc gets the nod.
Talking of limp, sadly ZZ NICK struggled off early doors after tweaking his calf again and Hassan Hassan played too. We wish Nick a speedy recovery.
