Men’s FC at the charity football match
The Men’s Football Club (FC) are not always regarded as the most decorous club on the LSE campus; that could be saying more about other clubs than it does ourselves. On Friday we decided to do our bit for good. Despite 90 minutes on a Wednesday usually being enough for most, for a special cause, we participated in a 24 hour football match – all in aid of the fight against cancer. The match was organised by Joe.co.uk as part of ‘Stand Up 2 Cancer X Joe.co.uk’.
It was an earlier start than normal for the majority of us with a 7:30 am meet. In spite of this, there was an impressive turnout from the LSE boys, so much so that they had to split us into two opposing teams. The cause alone was motivation for most. For the vain among us, the match was livestreamed and put up on Joe’s socials (this may have helped the early start). We were given the last 2 hour slot of the 24 hours and the score stood at ‘Whites’ 119 -117 ‘Oranges’ when we took to the pitch. The ‘Whites’ were full of LSE talent with the Club Captain, Social Sec and 4th & 5th team captains to name a few. Not to mention the new 6th team keeper who would go on to win Man of the Match (MOTM).
The game kicked off at 8am sharp and with most of the ‘Oranges’ still in bed, the ‘Whites’ quickly extended their lead. There was some great football being played by both teams; with goals only prevented by some valiant defending and superb goalkeeping.
With fitness levels looking ridiculously dire, the game started to open up. It was pretty much end-to-end stuff from here on out with everyone (excluding JC and Alfie) sensing that there were goals to be scored. The ‘Oranges’ then fought their way back level courtesy of wonder goals from Ed Laing (3rd Team) and Harry Barber (2nd Team) – fair play lads. After this, it was goals upon goals upon goals with some very weary legs and lacklustre defending. So much so that it all blended into one large free-for-all with most players desperate to get on the scoresheet. The ‘Oranges’ were trying to do that extra bit for charity and let JC finally bag the win but he did his absolute best to stop that from happening. It was, however, nice to see his 6s teammate Miles McCollum on the scoresheet with a well taken bullet header off a corner.
As we moved towards the end of the 2 hours, the game grew tense with neither team willing to give in. ‘Oranges’ had a narrow lead but the ‘White’ attacks were relentless. With seconds on the clock and the ‘White’ goalkeeper up for a corner, Ed once again took it upon himself to pull off the downright outrageous and put one away from the halfway line to truly kill the game. ‘Oranges’ ran out 131-129 as winners.
The idea behind the ‘24 hour match’ was to show just how relentless cancer is, a message that definitely came across at full time. A huge thank you to the boys who showed up; there was some fantastic football on show and the Men’s FC should definitely be proud of the performance they put in. It was a great event to be a part of – what better way to start your Friday morning than with two hours of football? I just hope everyone’s legs recover in time for Saturday’s fixtures!
