Last week I wrote about a game I had been looking forward to more than any other. Our very own Over 70s side, put together from players right across the club, taking on the England Over 70s at Newport Pagnell Town FC. On Sunday it finally came around, and it turned out to be everything I hoped it would be, and a real lesson too.
Let me start with the football, because there is no point dressing it up. It was a heavy defeat. England were a class apart from start to finish and showed exactly why they are one of the strongest Over 70s teams around. From the first whistle they moved the ball quickly, they kept their shape, and they punished every gap. We were second best on the day, and there is no getting away from that.
But a scoreline never tells you the whole story, and it certainly does not tell you this one.
We started a little nervously, which was only natural against a side of that standing. For a lot of our players this was the biggest game they have ever been involved in, and it takes a few minutes to settle when you are up against opposition like that. What I loved was that we did settle. We grew into the game as it went on, we strung more passes together, and not a single one of our players stopped running or hid from it. To see a group of men in their seventies still running out and competing against a national side said everything about this group and the spirit in it.
None of this happens without Ian Groves. Ian has put endless energy into building this team, coaxing a squad together from Banbury, Kettering, Rugby and MK and turning the idea of a Hellraisers Over 70s side into a real one that walked out against England. Whatever the result on the day, getting us to that starting line at all is an achievement, and it is down to him.
Here is the thing I have taken from it more than anything else. We now know the benchmark. We have looked the best in the country in the eye and we have seen exactly what that level looks like, the speed of it, the movement, the little habits that make the difference. You cannot learn that from watching. You learn it by being out there in it. Far from putting anyone off, it has done the opposite. It has only whetted our appetite for more games like this.
A big thank you to England for the game and for the spirit it was played in. And thank you to everyone who came down to Newport Pagnell to get behind the side. It meant a lot to the players to have you there.
These are the games that remind us why we still love it. This is only the start for our Over 70s, and we cannot wait for the next one.