Rain and Charity Football


I didn't go to a match on Saturday, as getting anywhere from Rocester on public transport is a nightmare at the best of times. The deluge of rain over the week also meant that a number of games were threatened with being postponed, I had decided to try to go to Matlock Town's home game or Belper Town's, so it was probably just as well that I didn't bother, as Matlock's game was off and Belper's ended in a 0-0 draw.



On Sunday I went to Oldfields Sports and Social Club in Uttoxeter to see a memorial match for local hero Roger Croft. The game was between Uttoxeter Town Old and New, and Roger's All Stars ( team of ex and current professionals). Captaining Roger's All Stars was his son Gary Croft, who played for England's Under 21s and was at one time transfered to Blackburn from Grimsby for 1.7 million pounds. Other pros and ex-pros included Tony Mowbray, the West Bromwich Albion manager, Graham Fenton who won the League Cup with Aston Villa and now who is player/ Assistant Manager at Blyth Spartans, James Beattie of sheffield United, Mark Stallard, who now plays for Mansfield, but has also played for Derby, Fulham and Bradford City, Martyn Margetson, who played for Manchester City, Southend and Huddersfield and is now the goal keeping coach at Cardiff City, and Peter Thorne, formerly of Blackburn, Stoke and Cardiff, who is still knocking the goals in for Bradford City.



Not surprisingly Roger's All Stars won the game 7-1 and it was good to see so many players, who were probably involved in games on Saturday turn up for a charity game. The same can be said of the 'Uttoxeter' Team, whose starting line up was mainly made up of current Rocester players and players who left Rocester for Leek Town in the mass exodus of players and backroom staff from Hillfields to Harrison Park at the end of last season.



In the second half, the younger players were substituted for ex-Uttoxeter players who were probably all in their 40's and a goalkeeper who wasn't really a goalkeeper after Uttoxeter's goalkeeper had to leave the pitch with a broken finger. This probably gave the All Stars a bit of a flattering result, but a good time was had by all despite the torrential rain for most of the game.



The picture shows the players lining up before the game. The players in the white T-shirts are the All Stars, although they played in Blackburn Rovers' shirts and in red and black are the Uttoxeter team

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boca Juniors shirt history

Image
The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol
Read more

shirt history AS Roma

Image
Roma were the club that I followed in Italy and although they are most famous for wearing red and yellow, hence the nickname giallo rosso the club didn't always wear those colours. AS Roma were formed in 1927 by a merger between SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS with Italo Foschi being the driving force behind the merger. AS Roma could also trace their lineage back to FBC Roma who were formed in 1901 and who wore red and yellow, but the first shirts they wore took the red, white and blue of Fortitudo-Pro Roma. Roma soon established themselves at the top table of Italian football and in 1931 finished runners up to Juventus and by now had settled on red and yellow as their colours. However, you'll have to take my word for it because the picture below shows Attilio Ferraris in black and white. In 1942 Roma went one better and won their first Scudetto with Amadeo Amadei scoring 18 goals to help them secure the title. Pictured below he is wearing the change shirt with a repl
Read more

Sud Tribune, Dortmund

Image
The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.
Read more