50s: Differing Fortunes

This was the matchday where the fortunes of Storm and Thunder really separated! One team secured seven points, two wins and a plus four goal difference, while the other didn’t!

The teams arrived at the Littledown Center with 14 players – so again just one sub per team, and a manager (in Andy Madden) who could be called on if the injuries started stacking up – more of that later!

Much of the talk as the teams arrived centred on how much time was allowed in the car park. This led to conversations on what you could buy in the bar for a fiver, to allow more than three hours in the car park. Water, chocolate or beer seemed to be the main suggestions – the choices appeared limited!

Soon though, discussion turned to the fixture list, which had been messed up by last minute changes to the pitches allocated to us by the venue – a situation fantastically handled by the refs.

After impeccably observed silences to mark Remembrance Sunday, the tournament kicked off pretty much on time, thanks to the efforts of officials and organisers.

Matchday Squads

Andy Madden (Manager), Darren Snell (Thunder captain), Neil Goridge, Simon Allen, Chris Short, Mark Kay, Billy Bulloch (GK), Simon Baker, Mark Kelly, Mark Cope (GK), Andy Shute, Paul Gillis (Storm captain), Andy Whittingham, Luke Hitchen, Dave Lodge and Gary Craig (Asst. manager)

Dexter’s Tournament Results

The first round of matches saw defeats for both teams. Storm went down by the slenderest of margins (0-1) to Amesbury, while Thunder handed Verwood their first win of the season.

In round two, an end-to-end match saw a very creditable 2-2 draw earnt against Eastleigh by Storm. Thunder put in a battling performance against Dorchester, to only go down 1-0. However, the headline from that match was two injuries which necessitated the introduction of emergency substitute, Andy Madden, and no sub available for the rest of the day.

The effort put in against Dorchester in round two really started to show for Thunder when they took on Weymouth in round three. The exertions and injuries from the previous match took their toll, and Weymouth eased to a 3-0 win. Round three for Storm brought them their first win of the season in seeing off Verwood 1-0.

Then came the historic during round four – the first ever Thunder vs Storm clash. With Thunder already depleted through injury and effort, what they didn’t need was an own goal and another injury early in the encounter! Whether they needed it or not, that’s what they got! Storm showed no mercy and pushed on to a deserved 4-0 win.

The day was a good one for Storm, building on the positive moments seen in matchday one, and setting them up well to push on in 2025. It was a day of knocks and hard lessons for Thunder, who now have a couple of months to rally for the rest of the season.

League Overview

Bournemouth and Eastleigh continued their unbeaten starts to the season, and unsurprisingly sit in first and second place respectfully, in the early table. Those unbeaten runs include a 1-1 draw against each other on matchday two.

Bournemouth have a healthy four point lead after eight matches, while just two points cover the next four teams (Eastleigh, Weymouth, Amesbury and Dorchester).

Why not take a look at the league tables, including all results and tables for the 50s, 60s and 65s.

Future dates

Matchday Two in November was the last league tournament for 2024. The next tournament is scheduled for Sunday 12 January 2025, when we travel back to Dorchester.