HAS BEENS 3 NEVER BEENS 2
Footballing greats of yesteryear converged upon the tiny village of Stow on Saturday for the annual Stow versus Stow Legends match.
In front of a crowd of quite literally 15 star struck supporters, legendary names such as Tony and Andy Smith, George Fairgrieve, Derek Scott, Graeme Johnston and Andrew Riddell wound back the years to enthral their fans with some mouth watering skills.
The young Stow side, who had just completed a highly successful season Border Amateur campaign- if you can call being relegated successful – were hungry to avenge their defeat to the Legends last season.
With all the ageing Legends managing to survive the hard winter, manager Drew Kelly had a full squad to choose from.
Despite having a combined age of almost 700 and a combined weight adding up to around that of a Blue Whale, the Legends went ahead after just 5 minutes when Neil Laidlaw evaded the Stow offside trap to beat the keeper at the second time of asking.
Soon after though, with the Legends running out of ideas- and oxygen- Stow levelled the score when their forward darted through the defence with only Raymond Hume to beat in goal. And when a forward is through with only Raymond Hume to beat there is only ever one outcome – they score.
Ten minutes later Stow increased their lead when Young’s stunning 45 yard free kick from 30 yards exposing another of Hume’s weaknesses – shots.
By now the Legend’s defence had more holes in it than a badger that had been run over by a combine harvester and they went further behind before half when Thomson lashed home a pile driver from 20 yards.
The goal had left manager Drew Kelly angrier than a squirrel after someone had stamped on it’s nuts and a half time tongue lashing from some call “Mr Football”, although reducing Marc Bedwell to a quivering wreck, seemed to have the desired effect.
Just 10 minutes after the restart, Craig Lowrie who won the South Cup with Leithen Rovers last month, sort of swung in a cross for Andy Smith to bullet a header into the back of the net. Smith celebrated his goal the only way he knew how – by crying tears of pure raw emotion.
By now the crowd which had swelled to well over 20 could sense that something special was about to happen and with 25 minutes to go it did!
Young George Clooney lookalike Cubbs Turnbull who had first played for Stow as a six year old back in 1989, scored a goal of such stunning beauty that if it entered Miss World it would have won.
The youngster’s lightening speed could not be matched by the Stow left back as he raced after a through ball out on the wing. He stole the ball from the defender before nutmegging another then homing in on goal like a laser guided cruise missile locking onto the front door of an Iraqi insurgent’s hideout on the outskirts of Basra. One more defender stood in his way, but with a cunning shimmy he brushed him aside before placing the ball past the outstretched arms of the keeper into the net.
If the other goals were like the “plain” one out of Girls Aloud this one was Cheryl.
If Battersea Dogs home closed down tomorrow it would not throw away as many leads as Stow have this season and the final nail in the coffin came fro young Ryan Grant who had begged Drew Kelly for a chance to play along side his heroes. He must have felt like the most special little boy in the world when he fired in a goal from a Tony Smith cross, a man he considers a God.
When referee Jim McMenemy put his whistle to his lips and managed eventually to blow, the huge crowd swarmed onto the pitch and tried to lift their heroes aloft - but they couldn’t - the legends were heavy before the match but after it the were even heavier with the weight of expectation that had been heaped upon their shoulders, but they did not disappoint. |
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