A man of the match performance from FTI’s Oliver Harrison laid the foundation for a 3-0 victory for the City’s PRs in their annual battle with journalists, a scoreline that onlookers agreed flattered the spinners.
An even game was decided in the last 20 by two goals from fellow FTIer Kwaku Aning and a third from Tom Bermingham, giving the flacks victory in a game that perhaps did not always befit the setting of AFC Wimbledon’s Plough Lane.
The annual ‘Hacks vs Flacks’ charity match is now almost twenty years old, and yesterday raised more than £9,000 for the AFC Wimbledon Foundation.
A large part of the fundraise came from a donation by Amazon.
On the patch of land once used for greyhound racing, it was the hacks that came out of the traps fastest, with the FT’s Sam Agini pulling the strings in midfield. Pink’un colleague Louis Ashworth had the first chance, turned aside by Harrison, before City A.M.’s Andy Silvester – an AFC Wimbledon fan playing on his home turf – was also denied, the keeper making a sharp save low to his left before Silvester miscued the rebound.
With the Standard’s Nick Clark imperious at the back and the FT’s Ade Fadare-Chard causing trouble up top, the hacks were disappointed to go in at 0-0 with the flacks barely troubling keeper Christian Sadler.
A raft of chances came and went for the hacks in the second half, but eventually the flacks burst into life as the clock ticked into the seventieth minute.
Aning’s free kick broke the deadlock
Flacks supremo Jamie Ricketts dishes out the instructions
Kwaku Aning, whose introduction up top had caused trouble in the hacks’ defence, won a foul on the edge of the box – before himself depositing the resulting free kick into the bottom left corner.
A defensive disaster for the hacks almost immediately afterward saw Aning beat an onrushing Sadler for the ball thirty yards out from goal, the striker’s toe poke enough to see the ball nestle in the Plough Lane net.
Sharp play from Sky News’ Mark Kleinman on the right almost saw hacks draw a goal back but the final word went to the flacks, Tom Bermingham of Brands2Life settling matters after a goalmouth scramble that would only have been improved by an accompanying Benny Hill soundtrack.
AFC Wimbledon Foundation was formed in 2013 after a recognition that the ground-breaking creation, establishment and success of AFC Wimbledon Football Club was built on the energy and effort of its supporters. The football club wanted to pay back this support by providing a series of targeted community-based activities for local people and formed the Foundation to deliver this work.
AFC Wimbledon Foundation aims to fulfil our local community’s ever-changing needs by delivering targeted community-based activities.