I started playing when on a wet or even worse a snowy day, the ball quickly became the weigh of a medicine ball and if you got your head to it, you had a temporary mud tattoo of the paneling and stitching to go with a sore neck for the rest of the day! Football boot came up to above your ankles and had toe caps….. a bit like modern building site safety boots!
But come 15 years old, equipped with Adidas Penerols, (traded up that season for Santiagos), I started coming into my own as a goal scorer. I played as a No.9 mostly but was by inclination and capability what we see as a No.10 nowadays.
I had a fixation with the turf inside the goal; in the days of muddy goal mouths, that bit of lush green, untrodden and usually a bit longer grass held a fascination and I just had to get the ball into it. Freudian? Well maybe. Being a working class boy in a middle class school there may have also been issues of rebellious defiance too; who knows or cares.
But I did have a knack of finding that little bit of space that seemed to live in another dimension; my memory always has the sun shining inside the goal regardless of the weather on the pitch. I won’t bore anyone with the war stories, but suffice to say a lot went in as pokes, or touches off knees and shins or whatever I could get on it, but in there were a few true gems and I’d not swap those memories for anything.
As for Veliz, given the quality of defending, I and I’m sure a few others here would think they might have been able to get on the score sheet!
We all scored hat tricks in the playground's. I lost count. The perfect hat trick, like the albatross in golf is the rarest of them all.
How many of us have a memory of one particular game. A moment in time.
I played in a local cup final at u14. We were losing 1-0. Final moments of the game ball comes to me on the edge of the area, touch out of feet hit sweetly into the top corner. Out of nowhere keeper get a finger tip to it and puts it over. A moment of glory turned to moment of despair in the blink of an eye.
We lost. Only highlight was being presented a runners up medal by the then Watford manager Ken Furphy. Still have that medal. And have never forgotten that moment nearly a half century later.
Thats football. Whatever level you played or whether you’ve never played. Somewhere you have that memory.
Either Veliz scored 2 goals in exactly the same manner (dodgy back pass) or the 2nd goal was repeated!
Not surprised that a team called STI had poor protection at the back!
Glory days eh?
I started playing when on a wet or even worse a snowy day, the ball quickly became the weigh of a medicine ball and if you got your head to it, you had a temporary mud tattoo of the paneling and stitching to go with a sore neck for the rest of the day! Football boot came up to above your ankles and had toe caps….. a bit like modern building site safety boots!
But come 15 years old, equipped with Adidas Penerols, (traded up that season for Santiagos), I started coming into my own as a goal scorer. I played as a No.9 mostly but was by inclination and capability what we see as a No.10 nowadays.
I had a fixation with the turf inside the goal; in the days of muddy goal mouths, that bit of lush green, untrodden and usually a bit longer grass held a fascination and I just had to get the ball into it. Freudian? Well maybe. Being a working class boy in a middle class school there may have also been issues of rebellious defiance too; who knows or cares.
But I did have a knack of finding that little bit of space that seemed to live in another dimension; my memory always has the sun shining inside the goal regardless of the weather on the pitch. I won’t bore anyone with the war stories, but suffice to say a lot went in as pokes, or touches off knees and shins or whatever I could get on it, but in there were a few true gems and I’d not swap those memories for anything.
As for Veliz, given the quality of defending, I and I’m sure a few others here would think they might have been able to get on the score sheet!
Blimey, that looked like a sellout, where the fack is everybody?!
We all scored hat tricks in the playground's. I lost count. The perfect hat trick, like the albatross in golf is the rarest of them all.
How many of us have a memory of one particular game. A moment in time.
I played in a local cup final at u14. We were losing 1-0. Final moments of the game ball comes to me on the edge of the area, touch out of feet hit sweetly into the top corner. Out of nowhere keeper get a finger tip to it and puts it over. A moment of glory turned to moment of despair in the blink of an eye.
We lost. Only highlight was being presented a runners up medal by the then Watford manager Ken Furphy. Still have that medal. And have never forgotten that moment nearly a half century later.
Thats football. Whatever level you played or whether you’ve never played. Somewhere you have that memory.
I wasn't much cop at footy as a kid, I got a little bit better and put myself about a bit. But yeah, hat-tricks weren't really in my repertoire!
The result of my two bob showing was getting dropped from the School team's next game a few days later 👋
Where’s the LOL button
I am it, mate 🤣