Venue: Bradford Park Avenue Stadium, Bradford
Goals:
Dorey
Jonno
Assists:
Kiddy
Line Up:
GK: Ad
RB: Joey
CB: Jonno
CB: Jonny Nicolson
LB: Hugh
RW: Pete
CM: Adam Dennis
CM: Kundi
LW: Joycey (me)
AM: Kiddy
FW: Dorey
Roll On Subs:
Rowan
Although this was officially a friendly match, it was a unique experience for us as a team. We faced Bradford Boys, who are a strong outfit featuring several ex-professional players but the best thing about this game is we had the opportunity to play at the Bradford Park Avenue Stadium with semi professional facilities and an amazing 5g astro turf pitch.
It's not often at our age as veterans that we will get these opportunities so we all jumped at the chance to play at this great venue.
The pitch was very big and we knew it could be a fast and intense game at times but we were ready for a challenge. Although the stadium holds a few thousand spectators, we only had one fan in the crowd supporting us, Adam's girlfriend came along to watch us fall to a 3-2 defeat whilst going down fighting.
It was an end to end start for both teams with some neat play. We had some early creativity after some nice link up play between central midfielders Kundi, Adam Dennis and attacking midfielder Kiddy but Bradford Boys were sharp at the back.
However, it was our goalkeeper Ad, making his debut for Bramhope Vets who was called upon to make the first meaningful save of the game. After some nice build up shifted out wide, Bradford Boys sent in a beautiful cross and a downward headed effort led to a sublime and athletic one handed save from Ad, who unfortunately also injured his hand in the process.
Bradford Boys were putting some pressure on us early on but our backline of Joey, Nicolson, making his first outfield appearance for us, Jonno and Hugh all defended well to snuff out any further clear cut chances in the early stages of the first half.
Then, after a clearance by centre back Nicolson, a breakaway chance led the ball falling to the feet of striker Dorey on the 45 metres mark. The Bradford Boys keeper appeared to be off his line and Dorey took his opportunity to lob the keeper from 37 yards out. It was an audacious attempt from the left hand side and it floated over the keeper who had no chance, an unbelievable goal and suddenly we found ourselves 1-0 up against the run of play and Bradford Boys were stunned.
We began gaining in confidence and had a couple of threatening runs down both flanks by myself on the left and Pete on the right hand side, both using our pace to our advantage to get in behind our opposition full backs but we couldn't quite get that killer chance on goal.
Adam Dennis then put a cheeky nut meg pass through to myself and I zipped down the left to link up with Kundi but Bradford Boys who were organised at the back managed to snuff us out.
We were playing with some confidence and we seemed to be passing it at the back assured and both fullbacks Hugh and Joey were linking well with both flanks.
However, Bradford Boys, featuring some ex-professionals were assured and patient and got themselves back into the game with a scrappy equaliser. Then, they began to pile some persistent pressure on us and all of a sudden we were 2-1 down. Minutes later we were stunned again and fell 3-1 behind.
Bradford Boys were pushing to close the game off before half time and won a couple of corners but we weathered the storm and began to build some attacks. Our attacks were primarily counter attacking chances and after winning two corners in a row, Kiddy whipped in a cross to the near post which caused the ball to go loose in the box and centre back Jonno pounced to blast the ball in the goal to bring us to 3-2.
We also saw the debut of Rowan who was a livewire from the start, however, unfortunately his debut was cut short after a heavy collision with the opposition goalkeeper resulted in an injury.
The second half was end to end at times but Bradford Boys used their semi pro vets experiences to keep possession well and see the game off and unfortunately we couldn't find the equaliser we craved.
A game we can learn from for sure and we produced a better showing than when they beat us 1-0 in the league last season. Next up we face a friendly on Monday and then Bradford Boys on Halloween night in the league. We then have a friendly against Headingley AFC Vets on our parent team (Bramhope MFC) grass pitch on Saturday 5th November, so plenty of exciting games ahead in the coming weeks.
I just loved playing on such a brilliant pitch to actually play some football on. I've played in an 11 a side tournament at Leeds United's Elland Road Stadium before back in 2014 which was on another level but I also thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this pitch and venue.
In terms of performance I felt I played better against Bradford Boys than last time although despite some promising runs and link up play, I felt I was always on the edge of the game in attack and I never quite had that moment in the game I was searching for to make the impact I wanted to, but I was also tracking back a lot too.
Last time we played these it was my second game back competitively after two years and I felt I got sucked into chasing their right winger too much rather than holding my position more and I wasted a lot of energy being dragged out of position but after more games under my belt now, that positional discipline on the wing / wide areas has developed again so I felt I played better against them this time. I put in some great crosses last game against them but other than tracking back, that was all.
I RAN MY 33RD OFFICIAL HALF MARATHON RACE: 8th October 2022 running for the Huntington's Disease Association !!
You can check out our Just Giving Sponsor Page below where you can sponsor us still or simply read up about the disease.
JUST GIVING SPONSOR PAGE
We have raised close to £200 so far and thank you to all who have sponsored me.
The race itself was my 33rd official half marathon and I am very proud to have ran that many since I was 22 years old. Although all the half marathon races that I have entered this year and early next year are all part of my marathon training for the inaugural Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon next year for Leeds Hospitals Charity and the build of the MND Research Centre in Leeds, I am also gunning towards a long term goal of eventually hitting 50 official half marathon's.
I know that I am physically past my peak (or atleast I think I am?) as a runner and cannot run anywhere near my half marathon PB time of 1:22, I am just loving topping up all the milestones but also happy to find myself improving on every half marathon since my first one this year back in May and have been properly training again with a plan.
The last half marathon I ran in August, which was partially the same course as this one as that was also hosted at Roundhay, I finished then in a time of 1:44 but this time I finished in 1:42. It was a 5 lap course and I have to say, doing lapped courses on a very long distance race can be mentally tough but I actually found it okay. I ran a very consistent pace in the mid 7 minute miles, for the most part I was fine at the pace but naturally I did slow down a bit each lasp when I was coming into the end of the lap which had a very steep hill that all runners were struggling up and some having to walk up but each lap I powered up.
I didn't really start to feel the pace thankfully until about Lap 4 but after a tough mile I did manage to reset myself and keep a consistent pace until the end, even though I was feeling the pain barrier by now.
The very last hill on the final lap, I was looking behind me making sure no competitor was catching me up from behind and I kept pushing. When running up steep hills in races and in training, I tend to use a technique where by I alternate between squat running using my thighs and low centre of gravity and when I feel the lactic acid burn I then turn to using my calves to push off and bounce up the hills and it's always been a tactic that has worked for me and it sure did this time. At the top of the hill I pushed through the pain barrier mentally to have a strong finish down the stretch. 1:42 finishing time on a fairly tough course, happy with it as it beat my last time and I'm not far off the 1:30's now if I keep up the training, stay injury free and run a flatter course.
Welldone to my sister Melanie for running the 5k at Run Nation, who has recently taken up running, my cousin Matty and Jonny who both ran the 10k and shaved some good chunks of time off their last race performances.
INSTAGRAM: @joycinho
TWITTER: @rjsports1 @joycinho @rjrugbyleague
SPIRITUAL TWITTER: @JoyceParanormal