Wales o65s defeat Gloucester

The Wales Veterans' Football Association accepted an invitation from Gloucester Veterans to send an o65s squad to face them in a 7-a-side match...Leighton Gates reports......

Although we received a lovely welcome from Gloucester Veterans, the weather, unfortunately, had different ideas with swirling wind and driving freezing rain the order of the day. The hosts got off to a good start via an unfortunate back pass by Whitmore with the wind sweeping it past helpless Wales keeper, Davies. We took a while to settle against the wind and it wasn’t until the 2nd 20 mins of the first half until we started to play through the phases and keep the ball on the ground. A slick move just before half time saw Veasey take the ball around the defender and finish with a sweet strike.

The 2nd half saw Wales take complete control and take a deserved lead from a corner driven in by Price and a stooping bullet header from Williams flew past the keeper. The 3rd came quickly after with the very lively Williams causing havoc, beating 2 defenders and driving home. Gloucester were now all at sea with Veasey rounding the central defender and driving home his second. Wales were now controlling the game and finding plenty of space and when a mazy run from Williams saw him round the keeper to cap a fine debut with a well-deserved hat trick. In the last 5 minutes an excellent ball down the line from Blackaby found Williams, who cut inside to lay off a ball for Thomson, who rifled home the 6th to complete a convincing win.

Manager for the day, Gates was delighted saying “We played some excellent football with everyone confident on the ball and working very hard for one another in atrocious conditions”.