Fantastic victory for the 65+ walking football team over a very good Leyton Orient side at our hoe venue of Vauxhall Road.
SUNDAY 19/06/22 – OVER 65’S NATIONAL CUP
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD 3 V LEYTON ORIENT 1
GOALSCORERS: MIKE WOOD (1), BERNIE BIGGERSTAFF (2)
The score line somewhat belies how tough a match this was against a good Leyton Orient team and if truth be told for a long time the match looked like being settled by a single goal or even perhaps going to extra time/ penalties.
Leyton Orient put us under a great deal of pressure early on and probably deserved to go ahead all be it from a mistake of our own making. Their early lead gave them a great deal of confidence and for the next 10 minutes they piled on the pressure, and it is testament to the character of our team that we withstood the early onslaught, stayed in the game, and slowly found our feet, whilst confining Leyton Orient to taking long range pot shots that Laurence handled well whilst also making a couple of important saves. As we gained a foothold in terms of possession, we started creating chances of our own and it was from one of these that Woodsy got the equaliser. Suddenly Orient did not look quite as comfortable and with Laurence in fine form in goal, George and Lee proving an impenetrable barrier in defence, Steve and Dennis were able to really start pressing forward and finding Woody who was unlucky with several speculative shots.
At half time we made a couple of changes with Nick coming on for Dennis and Bernie coming on for Woodsy. The second half was a much more even affair and in terms of creating clear cut chances we may even of edged it but it was a great relief to see Bernie find the net and give us a little breathing space, but things were still tight and we perhaps got the bit of luck we needed when Orient scored an equaliser only to see it chalked off for running (to be fair the Orient player was honest enough afterwards to say he thought the decision was correct) , on another day with a different ref who knows! This however spurred us on and again it was Bernie who found the net to give us a 2 goal cushion. Steve came off with an ankle injury and was replaced by Woodsy. From there we saw out the remaining time and, if only for the character shown, were worth our win. Can we play better? I believe we can, but every player should be proud of the shift they put in and the result they achieved.
Final score 3-1 - on to the regional final!