The town of Warrington was represented in the FA People's cup on 24th February 2018 by Enjoy Football's Walking Football team.
The team, picked from the players who play at Enjoy Football Walking Football sessions at Birchwood High School and St Gregory's High School travelled to the Goals Soccer Centre in Chester to play in the over 50s Walking Football competition.
There were 7 other teams in contention in this, the first regional round of the cup and with a place in the second round up for grabs and the ultimate prize of National champions at stake the competition was fierce. Walking Football it may be but none the less it's fast and feisty.
The teams were split into 2 groups of 4 and Enjoy Football faced teams from Chester (Northgate Strollers), Wrexham (Brickfield Rangers) and Crosby Walking Football club in their group. Enjoy Football's sessions have only been going for under a year and the majority of players in the team had only been playing for the last 6 months. It was a great opportunity for these players to showcase their long forgotten skills and they did not disappoint.
Against teams that had played in competitions before, the team came out with 2 wins and an unlucky 1-0 loss, notably against the eventual finalists Northgate Strollers. These results gave the team a semi final spot against Amlwych Town FC previous winners of this regional first round, and despite some heroic performances, the opposition’s experience came through.
Narrow defeats against both finalists did not disgrace the efforts the team put in and on another day they could have been crowned winners.
Dave Smith, player/manager of the team " I am extremely proud to have played with these guys today and the effort put in was top drawer despite only having been together for 6 months. We are proud to have carried the banner for Warrington in the People's Cup and judging by the disappointment of the players, hopefully we can take it a stage further next year. "
Enjoy football are running Walking Football sessions at Birchwood High School Tuesday nights 6-7pm and St Gregory's High School Wednesday nights 7-8pm and welcome any new players to come along and have some fun.
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