65s: An Encouraging League Debut

With a squad of eight players, the squad made their league debut in the Dorset Walking Football 65s League and got off to a positive start. The tournament was held in Dorchester on Thursday 17 October 2024.

Clive Robinson and Jonathan Martin made their full debuts in midfield and both performed very well. The rest of the squad was made up of David Bacall (newly appointed captain back from injury in goal), Peter Cherryman and Paul Kybert at the back, Peter Kane and Ed Perkins also in midfield and Andy Madden up front.

Managers: Paul Kyber & Andy Madden
Squad: David Bacall (gk, cpt) | Peter Cherryman | Paul Kybert | Peter Kane | Ed Perkins | Clive Robinson | Jonathan Martin | Andy Madden

Match One: Dorchester (0-0)

The first game against Dorchester finished 0-0 but could easily have been a win as Dexters dominated possession and pressed hard for the killer goal. David in goal had little to do for most of the game, but kept the defence on their toes when Dorchester did get forward.

Match Two: Bournemouth Reds (1-2)

The second game against Bournemouth Reds was a 2-1 defeat. Having taken the lead through a blistering shot by Andy Madden (his first of four for the day), we sat back and invited the Reds onto us, a lesson learned. They are too good to let them have that amount of possession. However, one of the goals literally crept over the line by a couple of inches after a good save – on another day we probably would have at least got the draw.

Match Three: Weymouth (1-0)

In the next game we beat Weymouth 1-0, and although the claret and blues had their fair share of possession they couldn’t break down our defence and only a ‘worldy’ save prevented Peter Cherryman joining Andy Madden (again) on the scoresheet. Good solid performance all round.

Match Four: Eastleigh (1-3)

We played Eastleigh in the fourth game and lost 1-3, again after going ahead from another Andy Madden bullet. Ed Perkins forced the keeper into a good save. Whilst Eastleigh dominated possession and position, the result did flatter them a bit. There had to be a reshuffle at the back when Paul Kybert went off with a thigh injury, but the defence adapted and coped well with the Eastleigh pressure. Again, on another day the save from David Bacall could have gone anywhere, but hit the bar and bounced just over the line.

Match Five: Bournemouth White (1-0)

The final game against Bournemouth Whites saw another 1-0 win with Andy Madden again (number four!) hitting the back of the net to sign off a successful debut for the team in the 65s League. A solid performance all round. Peter Cherryman come off as a precautionary measure after landing on his knee in the final match of the day.

Throughout all of the matches there was some flowing football played by the Dexter squad going forward, which lead to some great goals. With the elimination of a couple of errors and loose passes we could have come away with more points but we can be very pleased with the seven we secured and can look forward to the next round with optimism.

Why not take a look at the current league tables?