On a bright sunny morning, I drove across Uppingham to pick up local hero Dave Johnson, who had agreed at the last minute to join our merry band of over 50s walking football to represent Oakham United in a tournament of 12 teams.  After the wiggly windy drive across country we arrived and met up with the rest of our band of brothers - Markie, Richie T. Andre, Pete W.  We saw friendly faces around such as Mr Guest from Loughborough, Pete H [known to us on WhatsApp as Pam] and local rivals Stamford Strollers.  After negotiating the security boot inspections which resulted in Dave being banished to the local boot bank to borrow some studded footwear, we made it onto the hallowed astroturf and in best world cup tradition we lined up against the host nation in the opening match.  Even without Micky P. who was still winding his way along the B664 and suffering bouts of nausea for his troubles, we managed to tame the sting of the Harborough Hornets for 14 and a half minutes and lead 1-0 thanks to a solo effort from Markie T.  Unfortunately makeshift goalkeeper Pete W. was narrowly beaten by a cross shot from an unmarked wide man and the showpiece opening match finished 1-1.

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Match 2 saw us take on the mighty Corby Town with no recovery break between the games but with goals from Markie T and Chrissy Boy Williams we rushed into a deserved 2-0 lead and then held our nerve as they pulled it back to 2-1 but like the Red Devils later that day we held off the late rally to win 2-1.  No open top bus parade in Corby tomorrow will be needed now.

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Match 3 was almost upon us when queasy Micky rolled up with a green tinge on his face that nicely complemented his pea green Oakham United shirt.  He bravely stepped up to play against our next opponents Loughborough Wanderers in a 1960s themed orange outfit that could have been bought in Carnaby Street! Both teams had chances and both struck the plastic simulated woodwork but with Williams now filling most of the space between the sticks we fought hard for a fair outcome - a 0-0 draw and now qualification for the higher level European places in our league of 6 was looking on the cards. With Norwich City B having failed to get their act together and get down the A47 to the tournament, we knew that only Leicester West End stood between us and the Champions League Semi Finals!!

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Match 4 against the West Enders started with us putting together some of our best moves as if we were indeed West Enders ourselves and our footwork was like a sensational walking football riverdance at the London Palladium.  We raced into a 3-0 lead with 2 goals from Williams and another Markie Taylor Swift effort.  There was no coming back from this and with the acrobatics of Richard Tait Modern from Cirque De Soleil in goal we kept a second consecutive clean sheet to top our group and qualify for the Champions League semi finals.

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Match 5  With trepidation we lined up against the Notts Forest Vets for our semi final battle for the right to play the Desperadoes in the final.  The opening movements were even for the first minute but then the professionally honed skills of the Vets started to trouble our desperate defending skills.  After 5 minutes, Andre was regretting his misfortune to be given the GK duties for this difficult encounter and we fell behind to a smart finish from Jemson, the former Brian Clough protege which was considerably better than his League Cup winning goal for Forest at Wembley in 1990.  If only we had our very own Cloughie protege Benny Fari with us we could have cancelled out all their skills but it was not to be.  Jemson bagged an identical second goal but we kept his hands off the match ball by keeping them away from poor Andre and held the score at 0-2 until the final whistle.

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This was a great day well organised by the Harborough Town club and we all enjoyed ourselves and our performances give us renewed hope for next seasons Peterborough League in September.  A big thanks to all the players who gave up the traditional pre Cup Final TV viewing and comiserations to Pete for getting back in time to see the whole match at Wembley today.  Thanks everyone - hope to see you all at the Stamford tournament on July 7th and Melton on June 30th.