Okeford United Football Club

The league fixtures for the opening month of the season were released yesterday.  Okeford United will begin their campaign at The Recreation Ground with Weymouth Sports coming to visit.  In game week 2 there is no fixture, but on 22nd September Sturminster Marshall, who took voluntary relegation from the Dorset Premier League at the end of last season, will travel to Okeford Fitzpaine.  The first away game is a short trip to rivals Stourpaine on the last Saturday of the month.

Pre-season training for the two Okeford Men's teams will start on Tuesday 17th July 2012 at 7pm.  We will again start by training at Okeford Recreation Ground before moving to Clayesmore later in the year (further details on an extra training evening will be announced shortly).  Any new players who wish to join our club for the 2012/13 season are most welcome.

There is a meeting for all players this Friday 22nd June 2012, looking towards next season.  Please be at Okeford Rec for 7pm.

Okeford held it's presentation night for the 2011/12 season on Friday 18th May.  Chairman Steve Corben thanked all club members for their hard work throughout the season, with a special thanks going to Lyn Ridout and Mary Crabb for their work providing refreshments at every home game.

The awards were presented as follows:

Clubman:  Alan Frampton

Most Promising Player:  Doug Nelson

First Team

Managers Player:  Daniel Jordan

Players Player:  Marc Doble

Most Appearances:  Olly Chaffey

Okeford brought the season to a close with a fine victory over Gillingham Town Reserves.  Having defeated their visitors 6-1 back in October, they went even better this time as they achieved their biggest victory of the season, hitting eight goals for the first time.

Portland United Reserves were all but crowned champions of the Dorset Senior League today.  Defeating visitors Piddletrenthide 5-0, they took possession of first place in the league moving above Wareham Rangers on goal difference.  Rangers, who had been top of the league for much of the season and who didn’t taste defeat until facing Portland on 7^th January, have completed their matches and are 14 goals worse off.  Therefore barring a miracle when Portland make the short trip to rivals Weymouth Sports next weekend, the Islanders will be crowned champions.  Rangers may still find

Okeford enjoyed a comfortable victory in their penultimate game of the season.  The Butterboys were somewhat under par in the first half, but still managed to take a 3-1 lead into the break.  The first goal came just a minute into the match.  Marc Doble raced onto a defence splitting pass, before beating one player and driving the ball into the bottom corner from 20 yards.  Kingston Lacy got themselves back into the game with a well-struck volley from the edge of the area giving Lee Gray no chance in goal.

The Reserves put in their best performance of the season to achieve this fantastic result against what turned out after the match to be the league champions.  Cobham were unbeaten in their group matches previous to this league cup match but found the visitors at their very best.

The Reserves travelled to Weymouth for their group match of the league cup with just eleven players and the manager as a sub due to players missing from both the clubs teams.

The pitch at Redlands was very hard and short of grass, both teams found it hard to keep the ball down on the ground.

Okeford played Sam Pike in goal due to Lee Gray’s call up to the first team, and he did a good job.

Okeford returned from their trip to Weymouth College with one point following the first goalless game they were involved in this season.  With a depleted squad due to several injuries and a few players unavailable due to other commitments, Okeford made the visit with just 12 fit players.