Birmingham Over 70’s Overcome Adversity to Win WFLA National Cup.
Birmingham Over 70’s team travelled to Redditch United on Saturday 7th September to compete in the finals of the WFLA National Cup.
The competition was contested by six teams on a league basis with the side finishing top becoming the National Cup Winners.
Birmingham played five matches of 20 minutes duration each, and were undefeated throughout, winning three matches and drawing two, thereby taking the WFLA National Cup Winners title!!
This was a magnificent effort by all concerned bearing in mind that Birmingham lost three major players to injury and illness during the afternoon. Malcolm Thorp received a nasty blow to the right knee making an important defensive block, Barry Huntington suffered an attack of dizziness similar to Vertigo and Decka Thorp landed badly on his shoulder as a result of a very heavy tackle and dislocated his collar bone. So much for ” non-contact sport “!!
Needless to say, all three players took no further part in the Finals, and it was left to the other members of the squad to pick up the baton and run with it (or should I say ” walk with it “)
They did this admirably with performances of, not only skill, but a never say die attitude which was displayed most in the match against one of the pre-tournament favourites, Leggy Mambos, when they fought back from 3 – 1 down to draw 4 – 4. This was an incredible match. Eight goals scored in 20 minutes!! Most certainly the best all round performance I have ever seen from this team.
Results:
Birmingham 2 Harrogate Strays 0 Scorers: Roger Sutton and Decka Thorp
Birmingham 0 WFC Kingston 0
Birmingham 4 Leggy Mambos 4 Roger Sutton 3 Derek Greene 1
Birmingham 2 Bournemouth Reds 0 Derek Greene 1 Roger Sutton 1
Birmingham 3 Boston United 0 Derek Greene 2 Roger Sutton 1
Special mentions for Roger Sutton and Derek Greene. Roger was the top goal scorer on the day with six goals but unfortunately there was no Golden Boot award, and Derek scored four goals combining this with a sterling display in defence after moving back from midfield when Barry had to retire.
