Horsham walking on air, Bears edge it
Walking Football, a slower version of the traditional game, is one of the fastest growing sports in both the UK and the rest of the football playing world.
There are tournaments, leagues, and cup competitions at regional, national, and international levels.
One such tournament is held every two months at Worthing FC’s stadium and is open to players aged 70 or older.
Clubs can field female players that are under 70 if there are not enough players otherwise available.
Until recently, Horsham Walking Football Club have struggled to field teams in this category. But as a number of players have reached the relevant milestone in the past year, the club were able to enter the April tournament with high hopes of a strong performance.
The relative youngsters set off for Worthing in buoyant spirits.
Despite a drenching from a sharp downpour in their first game, the team ran out worthy 1-0 winners against Portsmouth, courtesy of a sharply taken goal from marksman Tony McMahon.
Next up were Arun Allstars, by which time the rain had cleared. Horsham continued to dominate proceedings with McMahon again on target to secure another 1-0 victory.
Horsham’s third 15-minute game followed, without a break, against perennial winners Worthing Red. The Reds went ahead with an unstoppable shot early on, but Ian Jones’ strike from a quick free kick brought the scores level and McMahon’s third goal of the day gave Horsham the lead.
A strong team performance, and Paul French’s tight marking of the Reds’ star striker, gave the victory to Horsham.
Brighton Dolphins had also won three matches, so Horsham’s final match was a decider for both teams.
In a cagey, somewhat scrappy game, McMahon scored the only goal to secure a 100% winning record
for Horsham.
McMahon finished the day on four goals, thereby definitively putting behind him a fallow period when his shooting boots had gone AWOL.
Afterwards, Horsham’s player manager Ray Alymore was quick to praise the hard work of midfielders Shaun Moloney and Karen Dare in all games.
Horsham’s keeper Steve Fordham, though relatively untroubled for most of the tournament, also got a mention for a couple of outstanding saves. As did unused substitute Colin Case for his support throughout.
Broadbridge Heath 2 Hythe Town 0 Isthmian south east
Heath left it late to earn a 2-0 home victory against a dogged Hythe team after the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Johan CaneyBryan was shown a straight red card in the 75th minute.
In a quiet first 45 minutes the game had an end-of-season feel, with neither side creating many chances.
For the visitors Bradley Schafer had the best opportunity when from a difficult angle his shot was sliced high and wide. At the other end Heath’s best chance came when a long drop-kick from
George Evans put Mason Doughty through – but the striker also struck his effort high and wide.
Heath started the second half well and Callum Dowdell cut in from the right and fired a shot just wide of Hythe keeper Lewis Briggs’ post and into the side netting.
Minutes later Louis Evans did something similar when he received the ball from Sam Lemon and struck a shot from the edge of the 'D' that also went narrowly wide.
Hythe should have been reducedto10menafteravery high challenge on Jamie Buchanan – but only a yellow was shown.
On 60 minutes Mason Doughty got round the back of the Hythe defence and
played the ball across the face of goal to Dowdell, but Briggs made a superb block to deny the striker.
It came out to Evans, who struck it first time, but he was denied by a superb diving block by defender Liam Smith to clear his lines.
On a rare foray by Hythe into the Bears’ final third George Evans, Heath's keeper, saved a Jake Embery shot at his near post, denying the striker from giving his side the lead.
On 75 minutes Caney-Bryan was shown a straight red for a challenge on Ben Aubrey and Hythe were down to ten.
Hythe had their best spell without really troubling Evans – until the 89th minute when a Josh Wisson free kick from 25 yards was brilliantly saved as Evans dived to his left to push the curling effort to safety.
In time added on Heath broke the deadlock when a long Kyle Sim throw from the right found the head of Tad Bromage on the penalty spot and he powered a header goalwards that went in off the underside of the bar, his 10th goal of the season.
There could have been an equaliser when Evans was finally beaten by Wisson but skipper Ryan Brackpool saved the day with a clearance off the goal-line to deny Hythe an equaliser.
The ball was immediately played up the other end to Lemon, wide on the left, and he ran at the defence, cut inside a defender and hammered a right-foot shot from the edge of the penalty area into the top corner of the net to send the majority of the 304 spectators home happy. MOM; Sam Lemon Heath manager Chris Simmons said: “The lads were great in spells, we asked them to press higher than we have in recent weeks and be more positive and they did everything we asked, apart from taking our chances. But again the reliable Tad got us in front and Lem finished the job. On another day we’d have won 4-0 or 5-0.”