Raining goals in latest Legends outing!

The floodgates opened in more ways than one as the Spurs Legends hit double figures at Hardwicke AFC in Gloucestershire on Sunday!

Heavy rain during the first half failed to interrupt the rhythm of the ex-White Hart Lane stars as they registered an 11-2 triumph against a team dubbed the Hardwicke All-Stars in a memorial match for late local football lynchpin Rob Dawe.

Andy Sinton, top marksman for the Legends last year and currently leading their 2014 scoring charts, was once again to the fore, bagging a first half hat-trick, with Steve Slade and Mark Gower also on target.

The Legends wasted little time in exerting their authority, surging into a 3-0 lead within 13 minutes. Sinton and Slade both found the net before the former doubled his tally by converting a penalty, striking low to the goalkeeper’s left after Slade was tripped in the box.

The Hardwicke stopper then pulled off a spectacular diving save to keep out Sinton’s volley after Stuart Nethercott headed down into his path, but there was no denying the 1999 League Cup-winning midfielder his treble on the half-hour mark. Shayne Bradley was felled in the area and Sinton scored with a carbon copy of his first penalty.

Bradley himself got in on the act when he found the far corner of the net on 36 minutes, but the hosts were gifted the chance to pull one back three minutes later when John Lacy’s attempted back-pass to goalkeeper Jimmy Walker was pounced on by John Leccacorvi and the Hardwicke man forced the ball home.

Undeterred, the Legends continued their scoring streak with Slade sliding in Gower’s cross from the left five minutes after half-time. Following a fine save from Walker at the other end, Gower was again the provider for the visitors’ seventh goal – his latest sweeping cross finding Bradley arriving at the back post to hit the target on 54 minutes – before Slade’s shot from inside the penalty area was helped into his own net by a defender two minutes later.

Garry Brooke saw his right-footed effort charged down and Sinton’s volley struck the post as the hosts found themselves pinned back, before Gower fed Slade to slot home number nine.

Kevin Watson’s chip tested the Hardwicke stopper before Gower scored from the spot after Slade won another spot kick. Mark Carter pulled one back for Hardwicke, before Bradley completed the scoring with the last action of the game, netting with a diving header at the back post following another Gower ball in.

Spurs Legends: Jimmy Walker, John Lacy, Micky Southam, Graham Roberts, Stuart Nethercott, Garry Brooke, Mark Gower, Kevin Watson, Shayne Bradley, Steve Slade, Andy Sinton.