Chapter Two - ‘We are the Champions my friend’

This special edition of View over the Imps is dedicated to the ISA title winning side. Forget your Daily Mirror colour tribute pull out, and your Manchester Evening News limited edition souvenir that you have to pay for, this is free. And it salutes a bunch a lads that it has been a pleasure to play with, and spend my Sunday mornings with, over the season.

Championships have a funny knack of being won and lost at various venues over the season. Remember Kevin Keegan’s infamous ‘I’ll love it if we beat them’ blast at Man U? Well to me the clincher of this season’s Section D title was the 2-1 victory over the Ship at Westminster Park. This was a real guts performance and the team spirit was sensational as the lads ground out a superb result in appalling conditions. There was no doubt in many peoples minds that this result would have a big say in the destiny of the title, and sure enough it did.  The second clincher was destiny again. Remember our battles against the Egerton and the duffle coat man? Well it was his charges that did us a huge favour in grabbing a draw against Tattenhall, that virtually ended their title hopes. 

There is no doubt that we have deserved the title this season. We have played some outstanding Sunday League football, and this has been matched by some great camaraderie on and off the pitch. I salute every person involved with the club, we must have the best and closest bunch of lads out of all of the Sunday teams. There is a will to win, and there is also the need to enjoy the game, back each other up, take and give our own unique brand of humour and not once, under the main club rule, slag anyone off.  Mix these ingredients together and you have a dish Anthony Worrall Thompson would be proud of…’A title winning team’.

It has been a pleasure to be involved in this triumph, and I am not the only one who thought that my footballing days had passed me by without success that we thought would never come. Well it has come so enjoy it.  A special mention must be said to the Tommy Hutchinson of the team Dave Mel, apparently after 20 odd years of local football this is the first time he has played in a title winning team on a Sunday. Well done Dave you are a man mountain at the back.

It would be good for me to mention every other individual but I would need a new keyboard after writing praise on every squad member, however I just want to mention Mark Howell and our manager Paul Brazier for their work on and off the pitch. It is not easy picking a team every week and having to let people down, but Paul has handled this superbly and not once has anyone fallen out about it. This is down to the way that Paul handles this.  It is also not easy finding somewhere to play every week and handing in the team sheets and other administrative duties that go with the club, again thanks to Mark for going about these tasks superbly.

Professional players are paid lots of money and to a certain extent a lot of tradition has been forced out of football due to the financial aspects of the game. However, the game remains its strongest at the grass roots. Forget £50,000 a week and places in Europe for one moment, let a committed bunch of lads celebrate their Sunday morning endeavours because believe me this feels just as good as it does for the pros.

So what now an open top bus of the city? A civic reception? Probably not, but we can look forward to a good summer knowing that we have achieved something we won’t forget for a long, long time.

Well done lads

"We are the Champions…"

‘The Beautiful Game’ – April 2002

TO READ THE PREVIOUS VIEW FROM THE IMPS CLICK HERE, OR TO READ THE PREVIOUS RANTINGS OF TBG, 'SANDY LANE SHOUT', CLICK HERE