AB1 Golden Gloves Awards- October 2019

Another month over, another collection of mean defences to be recognised. Please note, the outcomes are all calculated on statistics, and we’ve limited the winners to clubs who have played a minimum of three league fixtures. So here we go:

Premier Division

With three league matches played, no defeats, nine points and only two goals conceded, Potters Bar Town had a superb October. To be fair to the Scholars, October shouldn’t particularly stand out, they’ve had a superb season so far. The highlights of the month in the League were their four goal hauls against Bishop’s Stortford and Bognor Regis Town- although Stortford did get a goal back, the party-poopers. Congratulations to all at the Pakex.

North Division

Dereham Town are our North Division draw specialists, with five of them so far this season- and that should demonstrate that their defence is rather difficult to breach. October saw the Magpies go unbeaten, with two draws and a victory- and when you consider that two of their opponents were high-flying Coggeshall Town (victory) and Grays Athletic (draw) those results become even more impressive. Our gloves are off to Aldiss Park.

South Central Division

We’re about to write a sentence that perhaps demonstrates just what a fine job Jay Lovett did at Whitehall Lane. Our award for the meanest defence in the South Central Division goes to South Park.

If we’d written that last season you’d have thought we’d lost leave of our senses, but the Sparks have had a great start to the campaign, capped with an unbeaten October in the league, and two clean sheets. When you consider that the only team to breach their backline was unbeaten Ware, and that even the Wodson Park faithful had only one point to celebrate after that match- and that their side had to score a last minute equaliser to earn it- the form of the Sparks during last month perhaps becomes even more evident.

Congratulations to all at the club.

South East Division

We’re off to the Kent coast for our next award, and it seems the good folk of Whitstable are nearly as good at keeping the ball out of their nets as they are at getting oysters into them! Our award for October is going to the Belmont, home of Whitstable Town.

There have been a number of mean South East Division defences in October, with three sides conceding only one league goal from three matches. The Oysterboys, therefore, pick up this award by virtue of scoring one more goal than their competition, which perhaps demonstrates that they defend from the front! Congratulations to all at the Belmont Ground on an unbeaten month, a water tight defence, and (rather bizarrely) on being a fairly potent attacking force too.

Thanks to AB1 Goalkeeping for being our sponsors. You can take a look at their magnificent products- and they don’t just sell gloves- by heading HERE.

Premier League winner and international goalkeeper Asmir Begovic will be best known for his work between the posts, particularly for Stoke City, Chelsea and AFC Bournemouth. But he also has his own company- AB1 Goalkeeping- who provide magnificent products for discerning goalkeepers everywhere- and we are lucky enough to have them as sponsors of our Golden Gloves Award. As they explain:

'AB1 Goalkeeping was the brainchild of one of the Premier League’s leading goalkeepers, Asmir Begovic. With his 15 years’ experience playing at the highest levels of top-flight international football, plus a development team with over 20 years’ experience of developing first-class goalkeeping products, we have a range of equipment to suit all levels of the game, from Grass Roots Football to the Premier League.'