Vintage Celtic fail...was the overwhelming verdict at the Wythenshawe Games Walking Football Tournament on Saturday 18th July 2015.

First of all let's have the excuses as to why did Vintage Celtic fail and were brought down to earth with a resounding thud after 2 trophy wins last weekend. Well the unavailability of two key players didn't help, with Brian and goalkeeper Ian not in the squad. Having said that stand in keeper Lee, one of our usual stalwart defenders, played in goal and what a magnificent job he did. Ian would have been proud of him. Injuries to Derek, Graham and Dave A during the tournament didn't help either as all 3 players had to withdraw.

Lee pulled of some excellent saves from goal bound shots all afternoon. How even missing one key player, never mind two, can make a real difference to the outcome of matches.

The first match saw Vintage Celtic play the national champions Barnsley Leggy Mambos and lets be realistic they outclassed the Celtic team to win 5-0. If this is the level we are to aim for then vast improvements need to be made. One thing in their favour was the fact that the Mambos were all nearer the age of 50 than other teams in the tournament, who were considerably older.

The second match was against Blackpool Senior Seasiders where Celtic took the lead. Blackpool then scored 3 in succession to have a 3-1 advantage. Paul netted for Celtic to make the score 3-2. The game was fairly even and Celtic put pressure on the Blackpool side to gain a penalty. This would have produced a 3-3 draw but Paul had his shot saved from the spot. Despite coming close on numerous occasions Celtic couldn't put the ball in the Blackpool net and despite being worth a draw it was Blackpool who came away with a 3-2 win.

The last game in the league format was a 3-0 win for Celtic over old Manchester foes City In The Community. Some meaningless games followed to assess 4th, 5th, 6th places and Celtic beat Mowtown from Wythenshawe 2-1 and drew with City In The Community 1-1.

Despite dozens of opportunities to score Vintage Celtic's shooting all afternoon was atrocious and the phrase 'couldn't hit a cow's backside with a banjo' springs to mind. That was the main reason that the tournament verdict was Vintage Celtic fail. Also slow passing, poor marking, lack of concentration and not finding space contributed to the eventual outcome of the tournament.

Thanks to Colin, Dave A, Dave W, Derek, Graham, Lee, Paul and Pete who turned out on Saturday.

One good outcome from the afternoon was the fact that we were told Vintage Celtic came runners up in the recent Monthly League, held at the Etihad Stadium.