ENGLAND MEDIA TOOK ON SOUTHGATE'S STAFF INCLUDING PREM ICON - THE SCORE WAS NO SURPRISE
Before we start, it’s worth remembering that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink won 23 caps for Holland and his combined transfer fees were £30m during his playing career.
So, the press team - including yours truly in goal - was always going to be up against it against an England staff XI. Hasselbaink was up front for them, so you can probably guess the rest...
Furthermore, Kieran Trippier managed the England team while Jude Bellingham, Kyle Walker, Kobbie Mainoo, Ezri Konsa, Adam Wharton and Tom Heaton came along to watch. England kitman Pat Frost was referee. It finished 7-0 to England and Hasselbaink got on the score sheet a couple of times in a bit of a drubbing.
We played it at a local non-league pitch near England’s training base in Blankenhain and it was a lovely throwback to the good old days when a few of us would find an opponent in every tournament and, during a golden period, in every fixture.
We still talk about the miracle of Warsaw (basically, we got battered for 90 minutes against a team full of Polish ringers and still drew 1-1). We’ve had some super laughs down the years. Not so much when one ex-England star took it all too seriously and started bawling out our best player.
Or the time when, in France, we played a France XI. There’s Robert Pires running through - he had just been training at Aston Villa - and I make a save to deny one of the all time greats.
Only for a journalist colleague to sweep up behind, smash the ball into my face and it ended up in the net anyway. Thankfully, no silly gaffes in front of England stars this time. When Gareth Southgate was a TV pundit, he’d join in the games. Even once playing cricket on the beach.
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Back to our game… as the TV analysis says “he will be disappointed with that” over a couple of goals. But I like to think I made a couple of half decent saves.
There were a few star turns like the guy from the Times in his Scotland shirt at centre half. A member of the UEFA media team. The Daily Mail dribbler. We all gave it our best shot.
But the FA team had coaches, former pros, fit lads. We’ve had our glory days. Yet there was one very familiar outcome… England still cannot win a penalty shoot-out.
Just for fun at the end, we had a penalty shoot out. John “The Cat” Cross - fresh from my heroics in a shoot-out in a game at Spurs last year - went in goal.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we’d stand a chance. The FA snapper Eddie Keogh was in goal for the England team. All our takers scored.
But I saved one of theirs - I shall spare the blushes of the England coach who missed - and came within a whisker of stopping another. We won 5-4 on penalties. A small mercy after the crushing defeat.
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2024-07-04T05:15:57Z dg43tfdfdgfd