It was a great privilege to host the University Hospital North Midlands (UHNM) Charity Euros at Roe Lane yesterday on a day when the community was truly brought together.
With the temperatures having thankfully eased off from earlier in the week, the charity tournament went off without a hitch and the day was a great fundraiser for our local hospital.
Everyone that came had a terrific day with the football played in good spirit, refreshments available all day for fans and family members and music provided by Stoke-on-Trent singer/songwriter Levi Knapper.
Club chairman, Gavin Appleby, said: “This has been a great day for the club to be involved in – a brilliant way to combine working with the charity of our local hospital and linking it all to the Euros. In fact, some of the football played here today has probably been as entertaining!
“I’d like to say a massive thank you to the team at Prem Management for coming up with the concept of the day and bringing the teams to Roe Lane. It was a fantastic day and of course we’re so proud to support our local charity in this way at our Roe Lane facility.”
Steve Rushton, head of charity for UHNM, said: I’m delighted with how the day went. This is a great space to bring the community together and the event was a huge success. Being so close geographically to each other, there’s always been an obvious link between ourselves and the football club, but it’s much more than that.
“I’ve had a great relationship with Gav for a while now, so I’m hopeful that this event could be repeated again in the future. I’d just like to say a big thank you to everybody who came out to support our event and of course the fund-raising effort.”
Former Stoke City striker Mamady Sidibe – attended the event with his highly rated 17-year-old son Sol – and took part in a penalty shoot-out competition as a goalkeeper alongside former Port Vale and Trinidad and Tobago international Chris Birchall.
Big Mama, as he was affectionately known by Potters fans,fared slightly better with his long levers than the shorter,former Valiant Birchall, but both were beaten from the spot by many very willing young children!
Mamady said: “It’s lovely to see so many people turning out today for such a good cause. Bringing people together at an event like this is such a positive thing to see and great for everyone involved.
“I am really impressed with the set up here – for a club the size of Newcastle Town to be able to put on events like this is a big achievement.
As well as Mamady and Chris Birchall, the team representing Czechia were boosted by the joint goal-scoring threat of former Premier League player Dwight Gayle and 17-year-old Cian McIntosh who had a prolific season last time out with TNS in their development side.
As is always the case, our army of volunteers helped to make the event a big success. The question now is, can some of this Euros magic rub off on the national team. Well, we can only hope…
