Legends victorious on special day at Marine

Michael Brown scored four goals to help the Spurs Legends side to a 9-1 victory over our Yorkshire Spurs Supporters’ Club, as former players and fans descended on Marine AFC for a special fixture to mark the official opening of the non-league club’s new 3G pitch.

Our historic FA Cup tie at Marine in January, 2021, had to be played behind closed doors due to the pandemic, but local fans were instead able to see some of our former stars in action on 31 July, as members of Yorkshire Spurs invited the Legends team to take part in a friendly at the Crosby outfit.

Our iconic former FA Cup-winning captain Gary Mabbutt, now a popular Club Ambassador, was on the touchline as a special guest on the day, lending some of his expert knowledge to the Yorkshire Spurs members who played in the game and delivering an entertaining Q&A for supporters afterwards, while he also caught up with officials of Marine AFC to visit the fan wall which has been installed at the ground, featuring the names of the 32,000 supporters who purchased ‘virtual’ tickets for our FA Cup tie in 2021. Money raised from this scheme helped to fund the club’s new pitch.

It took the Legends less than nine minutes to take the lead in the game as Brown’s cut-back was converted by Pascal Chimbonda, who continued his record of scoring in every Spurs Legends match this year. Mark Hughes, Paul McVeigh and Royston Ferguson had all added their names to the scoresheet by the 22nd minute before Mark Falco netted in some style with the last kick of the first half – a stunning lob that curled towards goal and sailed in, despite the best efforts of defender Wayne Davies on the line to keep it out.

Chris Biggs pulled a goal back for Yorkshire Spurs 12 minutes into the second period, beating Legends goalkeeper Neil Sullivan from close range, but after Brown made it 6-1, it was Sullivan’s opposite number in the Yorkshire Spurs goal, Rich Partridge, who capped an impressive overall performance with an inspired double-save to prevent the Legends from adding to their lead.

In the end, though, he was powerless to prevent Brown from adding three more goals, including a great curler into the corner of the net, to round off the win.

In addition to enjoying a kick-about with some of their heroes, the Yorkshire Spurs side benefitted from some warm-up apparel kindly provided by the Club’s Official Training Wear Partner, Getir, while fans of all ages took part in a penalty shootout against Legends goalkeeper Sullivan at half-time.

Funds raised from the game went towards the JE3 Foundation – set up in memory of former Spurs defender Justin Edinburgh – and the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.

Next up for the Legends team is a match against Harwich Angels at Harwich & Parkeston FC on the Essex coast this Sunday (14 August), kick-off 2pm.