Charity football match brings back priceless memories and supports marvellous cause

A charity football match held recently to raise awareness of testicular cancer proved a great success.

It was a fantastic Sunday occasion at the Central Park ground of Denbigh Town.

A Denbigh Town Select faced the Checkemlads charity side from Liverpool.

This is how it went…..

Denbigh Town Select 2
Checkemlads FC 5

Report: David Cooke (The Cooke Report 🤣🤣🤣)

Former Denbigh Town striker of the 1990’s Peter O’Brien brought his Checkemlads team from Liverpool to North Wales for a very special charity game.

Checkemlads took on a Bill Dawson Denbigh Town Select with players from many eras pulling on the red shirt of Town once more.

The younger away side pounced into action as early as the first minute when a lofted ball over a static Denbigh defence was finely dispatched by Zac Byrne with a great lob finish over the advancing Darren Edwards.

Within a few minutes though the North Walians were level when good work from 1990’s star Mark Lewis and former Bala man Kristian Pierce teed up the former Swansea professional and Bangor City ace Tommy Mutton to finish into the bottom corner to level proceedings.

The Checkemlads outfit were having the majority of possession and were foraging forward at will led by the flame-haired midfield maestro Sam Hibbert who would grab the man of the match award for the away side.

The Liverpool lads retook the lead on 15 minutes when the pacy Byrne got away in the box with his low shot being brilliantly saved by Edwards, but the rebound fell kindly to lurking forward Josh Burns, and the son of the returning Denbigh ace O’Brien coolly slotted away from 6 yards.

Once again the Denbigh lads responded when Mutton gobbled up his second as he applied a left foot finish after good work from former Burnley schoolboy Leon Gierke.

Again though, some lacklustre defending saw the Liverpudlians ahead just before half time as a corner was not dealt with by the home defence and Mikey McCombe nipped in to toe the ball in from close range.

Half time: Denbigh 2 Checkemlads 3

The second half was literally an uphill struggle for the Welsh side as the younger, fresher legs of the Checkemlads began to dominate.

The introduction of burly target man Brad Foster helped the away side towards victory as his two fine strikes, in particular the second which was a 25 yard belter, made it 5-2 with 15 minutes to play.

The pace relented somewhat in the sunshine and Peter O’Brien and Dave Calvert swapped the away side colours to don the Denbigh shirt once more and make a return to Central Park for the first time in 25 years.

O’Brien was desperate for a goal to finish off his Denbigh cameo and was just wide of the mark with a few efforts, whilst Darren Edwards picked up the Denbigh man of the match award as the veteran stopper pulled off an array of saves to roll back the years.

In total, the match raised over £2,000 for Testicular cancer through online donations and those given by the healthy crowd on the day.

Thanks must be made to Denbigh Town FC for the use of their fabulous pitch and facilities and the volunteers.

And never forget the day’s main message – Checkemlads!