Manchester Walking Football Over 65 February 2018

The Manchester Walking Football Over 65 February 2018 session of the Spring league started on the 15th, on a cold, windy but dry day. Seven teams in one division started this inaugural session.

The seven teams were, AFC Blackpool Senior Seasiders, Preston North End Senior Whites, Rochdale AFC Strollers, Rochdale Striders, Tameside Striders, Vintage Relics and Wakefield Wanderers.

With only seven teams it was felt that instead of one division of four and a division of three, it would be better to have one division of seven teams and reduce the game duration to ten minutes, giving each team an hours football.

With the games only lasting ten minutes goals threatened to be in short supply. This was indeed the case as only fourteen were scored in the twenty one fixtures. Out of the twenty one games, thirteen were scoreless.

Division 1 Table February 2018

Each team played six matches and after the first session Rochdale AFC Strollers head the table on twelve points with three wins and three draws. Joint second on ten points and with the same goal difference are Preston North End Senior Whites and Vintage Relics.

Wakefield Wanderers and Rochdale Striders are both on six points, the Wanderers, who drew all their six matches 0-0, are in fourth spot on goal difference. AFC Blackpool Senior Seasiders are sixth on three points. Tameside Striders, who also have three points are bottom of the table on inferior goal difference.

Five matches finished in 1-0 victories and only three games produced more than one goal. Preston North End Senior Whites beat Rochdale Striders 2-0 and also beat AFC Blackpool Senior Seasiders 3-1 to achieve the highest aggregate score on the day. The biggest margin victory was Vintage Relic’s 3-0 win over Tameside Striders.

All the results and tables from this Manchester Walking Football Over 65 February 2018 session can be found HERE. Also HERE on our FA Full Time website, together with all past results and tables since the Greater Manchester Walking Football League’s formation.

All in all, despite the windy weather, it was a successful first day on this Manchester Walking Football Over 65 February 2018 session. Our three referees were once again well in control of the games and all were ranked an average of 4.5 on the assessment forms, with 4 being good and 5 being very good. The only downside was the two Blue Cards issued for over physicality and another player given a severe warning for similar conduct.

The players and teams will remain nameless but they know who they are and their future conduct will be monitored. This league has a good reputation for non contact walking football and if any players want to play contact football, they should find a suitable venue for that sport, it certainly won’t be at Heywood.

Comments are welcome below.