With the League originally intending to close down for 2 weeks over the Christmas period today was never intended to see any football played on our grounds. Due to the immense pressure on the League’s fixtures due to over 100 postponements suffered already, due to waterlogged pitches, the League re-opened the date and invited teams to play.
There weren’t many takers but there were 2 League games played.
In Division Three there was a potential blockbuster of a fixture between leaders Swanpool FC and Bottle & Glass FC. This was the first meeting between the two fancied teams this Season and Swanpool went into the game heading the Division table with six wins and one defeat from their opening games of the Season. Bottle & Glass have been going fantastically well in the domestic Cups this Season which had restricted their League programme to just three games to date, resulting in them boasting 100% success in their League games.
The game finished 2-2 with Swanpool’s goals coming from Callum Murphy and Liam Wright, with their visitors’s goals coming from from Dave Taylor and Haydon Tatton, the latter scoring an absolute screamer right at the end. Both Managers report being “gutted” by the result so the return fixture in the New Year should be well worth watching!
This result sees Swanpool extend their lead at the top of the table to six points over HBW United with both teams having played eight games. Bottle & Glass move up to fifth place, some nine points behind the leaders but with four games in hand their position is likely to look much different when they have caught up with their League fixtures.
In Division Four Welton FC Reserves were due to entertain Stags Head FC but their pitch remains under water and the game was transferred to Sudbrooke Drive in Lincoln, the home of Stags Head. Mark Pitchford, the Stags’ Striker, showed that he doesn’t need any new shooting boots for Christmas as he notched four goals. A further goal for Stags from Aaron Davis completed the year in good fashion for the new team that are now joint top of the table with eight wins and one defeat from their opening nine games. Charlie Raynes scored the consolation goal for the village based side as they remain on four points from their opening six games.
The recent volume of postponements caused by the wet weather, which are unprecedented by any standard, has resulted in a mass restructure of the remaining fixtures for the second half of the Season commencing on 5th January. The final pieces have now been put into what has proved to be quite a complex puzzle and the revised fixtures have been emailed to all Club Secretaries and have now been published on this site under the relevant Division’s fixtures
2020 promises to be an exciting and demanding second half of the Season with so much football left to play as some teams have only completed a quarter of their League fixtures to date leaving them due to play in every Sunday between 5th January and the end of the Season on 26th April.
Finally on behalf of the League Management Committee and myself we all wish all of our teams, their participants, players, Officials, League followers, and all of your families, a very Happy Christmas with all good wishes for 2020.
Ian Stephenson
League Secretary