BWFC V COUNTY FA

Birmingham Over 50’s took on the best that the County FA League had to offer in a round robin tournament and ended up winning on goals scored after all the keenly fought matches ended in draw.

Missing some key players due to injury and unavailability Birmingham started against the reds and immediately fell behind to an opportunist goal from Brendan Maxwell after an uncharacteristic mistake from Ian Ward as he dilly dallied on the edge of the box. A fine Dave Wright effort brought the Brummies level on the stroke of half time with a trademark turn and blistering left foot shot easily beating the forlorn keeper. Scores remained at 1-1 despite Birmingham hit the metalwork three times through Ade Whitehead Darren Bradley and Ian Ward.

In the second game another 1-1 draw ensued as Birmingham finished the game as the walking wounded with only 5 fit men available. Dave Wright gave Birmingham the lead with a fortunate shot which hit keeper post and trickled over the line to give them the lead. A previous injury to the energetic John Mcgillan meant that they were already at the bare bones and in scoring Wright had damaged his thigh. David Castle and Heath Underwood in goal defended admirably but could not stop a Copeland drive been collected by Gough to make no mistake. Once again though he post denied Birmingham twice with Ian Ward and Ade Whitehead rattled the goals.

Final Table

P    W   D    L    F   A    Pts

Birmingham            2          2         2    2     2

County FA Red       2          2         1     1     2

County FA Blue      2           2        1      1    2

Afterwards Skipper David Castle commented,

“It was great to get back to some competitive football after a bit of a weird year last year, we hadn’t played together for a long while I know all the lads really enjoyed it. It’s a shame about the injuries, but that’s the nature of football, we need to get everyone fit and ready to look forward to the future.”