60s: The Cherryman on the Cake

In the first three league rounds of the Dorset Walking Football League, Dexter Sports 60s had managed to gain just three points from nine matches – all from draws.

With a strong looking eight man squad, the team travelled 37 miles to Sherborne, on 18 February for matches against Dorchester and Weymouth.

Matchday Squad (clockwise from top left)
Mervyn Young, Keith Matear, John Gray, Peter Cherryman, Andy Madden, Peter Kane (c), Mark Sanderson & Ed Perkins

Manager: John Gray

Dexter Sports 0-1 Dorchester

With Dorchester second in the table and statistically the best defence in the league, Dexter’s opening fixture of the day was a tricky one. Update: after this round, Dorchester are top and share the best defence with Swanage.

An own-goal by Pete Cherryman, from a failed back-pass, was the only thing to separate the two sides at the final whistle. Were it not for that unfortunate mishap, the 60s may have gained a significant fourth draw in seven matches. Instead, they had to settle for moving onto the the next match with their heads held high after a decent performance.

Some members of the Dorchester squad considered themselves fortunate to have secured all three points, with one member commenting “you stopped us playing”. Congratulations and sympathy were also expressed by our opponents.

Dexter Sports 1-0 Weymouth

Just last month, when these two teams met in Round Three, Weymouth walked away with a narrow 1-0 victory. This time it was Dexter’s turn to win by a single goal, as Mr Cherryman made up for his earlier faux-pas to score, after impressively gliding and weaving through the Weymouth defence.

Round Four’s two performances have shown our 60s team is becoming a difficult unit to break-down and play against.

Trouble is… I proved a danger to Dexters as well as the opposition!”

Peter Cherryman, in his post-tournament interview

Performance Overview

To close out the round with their first win of the season, the day felt like a success for the 60s. With a bit more fortune, they could have ended with four points instead of three. However, the quality of the performances led the 60s Manager (John Gray) to say “I’m a very proud manager, as these were our best displays of the season so far”.

It was also pleasing to have a new player make his debut for the 60s. Keith Matear added more experience and a calming presence to the squad, just a few weeks after coming to training for the first time.