Manchester Walking Football 60s March 2019

Manchester Walking Football 60s March 2019 saw rain and wind after the recent good weather. This report is for Divisions 1-3, the report on Division 4 will be added to this page after that day’s fixtures.

Divisions 1-3

Thirty one goals were scored in the thirty games played, thirteen in Division 1, a miserly five in Division 2 and thirteen in Division 3.

Division 1 Table March 2019

In Division 1, Autumn winners Wakefield Wanderers top the table with 9 points from three wins and one loss. Newly promoted Chorley FC Magpies take second spot on 8 points from two wins and two draws.

The previous two times 60’s champions Rochdale AFC Strollers are in third spot on 5 points from a win, two draws and a loss. Nash Amblers and Chadderton FC WF prop up the table both on 2 points, the Amblers edging it on a goal difference of two. Both teams drew two and lost two.

Division 2 Table March 2019

Division 2 sees Bolton Wanderers Walkers with a four point lead over second placed Fleetwood Town Flyers. The Wanderers are on 10 points from three wins and a draw, while the Flyers are on 6 points from one win and three draws.

Third in the table are newly promoted Man City A on 4 points from one win, one draw and two losses. Relegated from Division 1 in the Autumn 2018 league, AFC Blackpool Senior Seasiders are in fourth spot on 3 points from three draws and one loss. The Seasiders problem is scoring goals with none scored in this session. As you would expect, with Steve Hyde in goals, they rarely concede, just the one this time.

Bury Relics prop up the table on 2 points from two draws and two losses.

Division 3 Table March 2019

Manchester Corinthians A, who threw away the Division 3 championship by one point on the last day of the Autumn 2018 season look to be made of sterner stuff this time round. The Corinthians lead the table by four points over Northgate Strollers and Maccabi Old Codgers, on 10 points from three wins and one draw. The Strollers edging the Codgers on goal difference.

Fourth and fifth spots go to Roach Dynamos and Rochdale Striders, both on the same 2 points and goal difference. The Dynamos and Striders both drew two and lost two.

Division 4

This new division to the league had six teams, so game time was limited to twelve minutes due to all the 60’s and 70’s fixtures on the day. The new teams were Chorley Yellows, Man City ‘B’, Mancom, Manchester Corinthians ‘B’, Preston NE SW and Rochdale Wanderers.

Division 4 Table March 2019

In the fifteen fixtures played, only four games produced any goals, with eleven scoreless draws recorded.

Three teams are joint top of this new divisions, Chorley Yellows, Manchester Corinthians ‘B’ and Mancom. All three are on seven points from one win and four draws and the same goal difference.

In fourth spot are Man City ‘B’ on six points from one win, three draws and one loss. Preston NE SW, with four points from four draws and one loss, are fifth. Sixth spot goes to Rochdale Wanderers on three points from three draws and two losses.

All the results and tables can be found HERE and HERE.

Fixtures Controversy

There have been some complaints about the fixtures, with some teams unhappy with having to wait 40 minutes on occasion between games. Also the fact that they are playing other teams in the same order as previous sessions. No team plays more than two games in succession, giving everyone a break.

The amount of work that goes into running the 60’s, 65’s and 70’s leagues is obviously not appreciated by some. Our fixtures secretary Steve Colesby does a very difficult job juggling all the teams into the time slots and pitches available and ultimately some are not happy with their playing schedule.

Having done the job myself before Steve kindly took over, I can assure you that it’s an almost impossible task to keep everyone happy. As in life, it’s always the one’s who do the least that make the most complaints. The solution is simple, if you don’t like the way we run these leagues, feel free to go elsewhere.

Here’s a challenge for those complainers – have a go at arranging the fixtures, without clashes, for 15 teams on 4 pitches with 8 different time slots. I wonder how many would even attempt it, never mind succeed.

The fixtures will stand for every session in the current season in order to reduce Steve’s workload. He may be happy to rotate the order for the Autumn season but that’s up to Steve.

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