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A fun filled afternoon at Polegate WMRG saw a Polegate Town FC Legends team take on the Polegate Royal British Legion Club to help raise money for two local Polegate charities, You Raise Me Up and Children With Cancer Fund. Over 100 people came down to support in the sunshine to make it a great afternoon raising over £1,000 for the two charities.

Polegate Legends included some father and son combos including David and Fletcher Sheppard, Mark and Theo Standen, Puddy and Billy Knight and Graeme and Bailey Mintrim. Others included Nick Underdown, Clive Connell, Liam Brooks, Mavis Davis, Jared Wicking, Baba Saracouli, Richard North, Mason Collyer and Steve Cook. Even our very our club secretary, Danni Green took part in her pink boots. Club President Chris Earsy Bennett was the Legends Manager. Both teams had to maintain a minimum of 5 players over 40 years old on the pitch.

After a cagey opening 15 mins, Sam Eaton opened the scoring for the Legion against the run of play with a well taken goal and Town rode their luck with goalkeeper Steve Cook pulling off a smart close range save soon after. Baba Saracouli equalised for Polegate but was very much helped by Legion goalkeeper Andy Pike fumbling the cross into his own net. Mark Standen should’ve given Polegate the lead but missed an open goal but redeemed himself soon after with a close range finish after good work by Billy Knight. You could tell players hadn’t played in a while with a few stumbles when chasing long balls.

After much needed half time refreshments the 2nd half got underway. The game was fairly even with both sides making plenty of changes with rolling subs. Midway through the half, the Legion equalised when a long ball picked out Sam Eaton who rounded Billy Knight in goal to tap in on the goal line. Polegate Chairman Graham Hoddle Holder came on for the Legion team but he hobbled back off soon after with less that 5mins under his belt. With the game entering the final 10mins, Town were awarded a penalty. Danni Green took the responsibility and coolly slotted home to give Town the lead. Richard North had a great chance late on for Polegate but Sam Eaton made a great recovery goal line clearance.

Polegate Town FC Legends & Polegate Royal British Legion

The game finished 3-2 to Polegate but football and charity were the winners today. A great advert for the community spirit within Polegate and we hope everyone had a great day and we were able to raise money for our charities.

Polegate Town FC and Polegate Royal British Legion raise over £1,000 for two charities