On Sunday, a team from Arbroath Walking Football travelled down to play some of the residents at Castle Huntly in a friendly match.
Things weren’t looking good weather wise, but the cloud and rain soon shifted to leave a nice sunny day for the match. This was the first walking football match for the hosts, but it soon emerged that they were no strangers to the game of football and they also had a good home support. The old competitive edge was still there, and few early tackles showed that they meant business. This was no surprise, it’s a hard game to play when you’ve played competitively for years, you still want to get to the ball first, still want to win challenges. Our version of the game relies less on tackling and graft, it’s more about passing and trying to get into spaces without running. Tackles from the back or side are not allowed, it’s hard to get your head round it at first, but it does come after a few games.
Despite playing well, AWF lost the overall result. No excuses, but we were also missing our secret weapon … Dave (the cat) Beattie, it’s always good to have someone who actually likes being in goals.

Well done to all the guys who played and many thanks to Castle Huntly for inviting us.

Team: Dave Milne, John Gowans, John Cruickshanks, Mike Burnett, Dave Scott, Ray Parker and Willie Craib

Thanks to all who turned up tonight, despite the rain.
It was another one of those ‘game of two halves’ evenings, the team selectors done well, but each team had a one player advantage for each half.
The players have adapted to the three touch rule really well, because of this, there was some great touch and go football being played. Andy Medford gets a special mention for his finishing tonight, some cracking goals.

Some issues with the referee tonight, not that referee was doing anything wrong, just the disagreements with his decisions. Let’s get this sorted before we have to resort to reffing the games ourselves again.

The referee’s decision is final. Absolutely no arguments with this.
If the ref has made his decision, don’t correct him. Not point in having the ref there if you’re going to do that.
If you think the ref has got a rule wrong, discuss it after the game. Do not stand shouting about it on the pitch or touchline.
JUST TAKE A STEP BACK. This is, after all, non competitive football between mates. Get behind the ref. If a decision goes against you, it’s not the end of the world, accept it and have a laugh about it later.
The ref is someone we know, someone who is giving up their free time for beer money to help us out, let’s not forget that.

To all the guys who are playing in the friendly on Sunday, could you all meet at the high school/sport centre car park at 11.45.

A wee bit wet