Won 1-0
Scorers: Arthur Aikin
MoM: Kevin Pang
DoD: Brian Hurlow – for preserving his body for Spanish walking trials – apparently
A delayed start owing to the previous teams on the pitch being held up in the usual traffic gave Geoff Philpott the opportunity to impart his considerable and indeed passionate knowledge about soil – its structure – and the huge increase in input prices to grow his cauliflowers and indeed all agricultural produce in this country. All that was missing was John Hinch to add his opinion. His fascinating seminar almost was brought to an abrupt end by the hockey match in downtown Gillingham (for goodness sake get on with it – Ed).
And so off we went with the Friars, unusually for them putting together some early positive attacks especially, from the excellent Kevin Pang in midfield working well with father John and son Arthur Aikin both up front with latter on a league debut. Anchorians defence and some Friars faulty radar kept the scoresheet blank until the 25th minute and Kevin set up a drive downfield to Aikin senior who quite selflessly passed to Aikin junior who deftly reversed shot for his first league goal.
This galvanised Anchorians who having given our defence an easy time somewhat dominated the second half. Indeed it was a little surprising that it stayed that way and no little credit to ‘Clean Sheet’ Trigger in goal marshalling his defence of Mike Barton, Sir G. Philpott, Biggles, the indefatigable Jamie Harris and John Ratcliffe. There were some probing attacks from Luke and some run on parts for Scribbler Hayward and Corporal Jones. All in all an excellent and very competitive match.
Squad: Simon Triggs(GK), Tony Jones(C), John Aikin, Arthur Aikin, Mike Barton, Geordie Hayward, Jamie Harris, Sir Geoffrey Philpott, Chris Ward, John Ratcliffe, Luke McGee, Kevin Pang
