HEADING FOR STARDOM

Shelf Panthers 1 Collingham 4


Fear of imminent decapitation is one of the main barriers to progress in junior football.

Many promising young careers have been ruined by the failure to realise that the object hurtling towards their head is actually a football, rather than a live hand grenade.

So today we salute Panthers coaches Lee “Boot Camp” Marsh and Tony “Sergeant-Major Shut-Up” Williams – who’s had all sorts thrown at him during his 25 years in the Army – for finally managing to teach their team the difference between balls and bombs.

In a tough Saturday training session, the players were given intensive heading practice – “enough to make their heads bleed,” according to the coaches – and the following day it paid off with an aerial display worthy of the Red Arrows.

One of the leading exponents of these new-found heading skills was central defender Jonny Jones (who does have an advantage because his flowing locks help to cushion the ball). In a Man of the Match performance, he used his head repeatedly to thwart the quick and skilful Collingham attackers. His most spectacular intervention came in the 24th minute, when he saved a certain goal by acrobatically booting the ball high into the air off his own line and then waited for it to drop again before rising above the strikers to head it away from danger.

Scott and Dylan also produced magnificent headed clearances in a fine defensive performance by the home side.

When the draw was made for this first-round Cup match, Panthers supporters were left asking “Who are Collingham?” in the same way that Spurs fans might search for information about some obscure Ukrainian UEFA Cup opponents.

The answer is that Collingham are a fine side from the Wetherby area, who were unbeaten in the Garforth League all last season – so this defeat was no disgrace.

Playing down the slope on a gloriously sunny afternoon, the visitors raced into a 2-0 lead within 15 minutes.

But within two minutes the Panthers had clawed one back, Robert hammering his third goal of the season from a seemingly impossible angle far out on the right flank.

Collingham made it 3-1 after 21 minutes, but, with the slope in their favour in the second half, Shelf threw everything they had at the visitors’ goal. Striker Tobias Mears – keen to add to his three-goal tally for the season – was denied by three good second-half saves from the Collingham keeper.
Collingham killed the game off after 47 minutes with a coolly-taken goal, but even then the Panthers refused to let their aching heads drop.

They may be out of the Cup, but the message from this game is – keep using your heads…and you’ll keep heading up the League.