Great win for o70s against England!

Wales Veterans Football o70s squad travelled to Loughborough on November 16th 2022 to take part in the third o70s football international and although the hosts won the previous two encounters comfortably, Wales were a different proposition this time, dominating possession for long periods and recording a superb 2-1 win!

Wales started brightly with full backs Wallace and Tovey ably supporting Abbott and influential captain, Gerald Jones, and allowing wide men Algieri and Peterson to cause problems for the English back-line. In fact if strikers Dickinson and Arnold had their ‘shooting boots’ on Wales could have been ahead within 10 minutes, the latter placing a golden opportunity wide of the upright on fifteen minutes. The visitors continued to press forward and although England remained defiant with player-manager Ken Pollock a rock at the heart of their defence, they finally succumbed, when good interplay by Jones, Peterson and Algieri enabled a marauding Abbott to slam home from close-in. As usual the hosts were sharp on the break with Beale, Hargreaves and Thwaites always a handful, but any threat was dealt with by a consummate performance from the Welsh defence of Young, Jordan, Wallace, Tovey and subsequently Mike Williams, all well marshalled by the unflappable Phil Williams between the sticks....until they suffered a ‘bloody nose’, first literally, losing Algieri to a flattened proboscis and then metaphorically, when an over-eager Young flattened his opponent and conceded a penalty, which Beale stroked home.... against the run of play! Replacements Gallagher, Hold and Lennon entered the fray, the latter skimming the bar from 18 yards out and then a bizarre double-post strike by the unfortunate Arnold meant the scores remained level going into the interval.

As the teams began the second half, the 'dragons' knew the game was there for the taking...although for the next thirty minutes the game opened up with playmaker and man-of-the-match Jones, along with partner Abbott beginning to tire (after covering 10 miles each!) and the hosts looked most likely to score with Beale and Robert only thwarted by the talismanic Jordan! Finally Wales made the breakthrough....a good move involving Nelson and Algieri resulted in a half-chance for Billy Arnold, and although his effort was gathered by England stopper Pope, the keeper’s poor clearance was seized upon by ‘bustling’ Billy who, this time, made no mistake - to the delight of the travelling Welsh hoards. Mike Williams was switched to bolster the midfield and Wales held on for a fine and deserved win.

The ‘6 hour’ homeward journey was just as eventful with Messrs Morgan, Williams and Humphries in the cock-pit, taking their ‘fare’ on a sightseeing tour of the Welsh Marches until the following morning...but this was indeed a great day for Wales Veterans' Football and the management team of Alun Huish, Jon Ross and Paul Averies were rightly proud of their charges..
1. Phil Williams GK, Newport
2. Paul ‘Sasha’ Young , Newport
3. John Jordan, Newport
4. Bob Nelson, Penybont
5. Ryland Wallace, Merthyr Tydfil
6. Frank Lennon , Barry Town
7. Gerald Jones (Capt) , Newport
8. Mike Williams, Penybont
9. Steve Hold, Penybont
10. Phil Tovey, Swansea Uni
11. Billy Arnold, Merthyr Tydfil
12. Dave Abbott, Newport
13. Mick Algieri, Swansea Uni
14. Ian Dickinson, Newport
15. Howard Peterson, Barry Town
16. Nigel Gallagher, Newport