Our over 70s travelled to the magnificent Lilleshall National Sports Centre on the Shropshire/North Wales border on Saturday September the 17th 2022 to defend the title won in 2021. They travelled, looking forward to playing some of the best teams in the Country, hoping to prevail once again to lift the cup.
We began by drawing our first two games, 0-0 with Matlock and 1-1 (Colin Alexander) with Cove, their equaliser coming in fortuitous fashion as a "pass" from the line sneaked its way into our near post.
The following two games produced vital victories, 1-0 (Colin Alexander) against a slick Birmingham side and a similar 1-0 score (Mick Ottolangui) against Arun.
With these two wins, under our belts, we had given ourselves some breathing space and completed our final group game with a 0-0 draw against Bolton - the only other side who could have won our division.
In the quarter final we played Wigan and won 2-0 with two quickfire goals from Dave Florido, the second an absolute thunderbolt.
This was followed by another slick display in seeing off Eastleigh 1-0 in the semi final with a Mick Ottolangui finish.
The final was a very keenly contested game against a Winstanley side from Wigan. An early goal from Ottolangui helped settle nerves. The final whistle blew confirming that we were once again National Champions.
After our presentation there were joyous scenes at the end as we celebrated alongside Norwich City Community, the WFA over 60s champions, who included four of our club members, Ray DeKeyzer, Richard Nicholls, Mal Broome and Peter Milton.
Over 70s squad: Alan Gibbs, Geoff Brown, Colin Alexander, Brian Russell, Dave Florido, Richard Graham, Barry Buxton, Rodney Smith, Peter Pearson and Mick Ottolangui.
It was truly another wonderful day in the history of Norwich Soca Seniors
Brian Russell
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