Looks mightily impressive but unfortunately this was not the greatest result in the entire history of football, as this was actually against a visiting team from Gibraltar formed in 1962 and at the time were members of the “Rocks” Premier Division with eight of their squad having represented the national side.
The match was played on 3/11/88 as part of the Dragons’ fundraising for the family of Wivenhoe Town supporter Matt Fowler, who tragically collapsed and died during a friendly between W.T.F.C members and Wivenhoe Cricket Club at Broad Lane. In a sad coincidence his brother John (who made 400 appearances for Colchester United) passed away in similar circumstances during a charity match.
Matt was a real character at the club and was fondly remembered for his great sense of humour. He was also well known on the football scene having won virtually everything there was to win in local soccer. Joining Eastern Gas (now Gas Recreation) from Brantham in 1968, he won both the Essex & Suffolk Border League First and Premier Division titles as well as various cups and Sunday League successes with Gaslights.
A four club charity competition, the Matt Fowler Memorial Shield, was created in his memory featuring the teams he had been associated with, namely Wivenhoe Town, Gas Recreation, Brantham Athletic and Stanway Rovers and was competed for during the 1990’s. The Dragons won the shield on four occasions whilst Gas Recreation had three successes and Stanway Rovers one.
Below is the report and advert for the fundraising game, plus the programme. The Wivenhoe starting line up was as per the programme with Keith Pope (for Bain), Wayne Ward (Honey), Jason Burman (Price), Chris Dines (Myers), Richie Reynolds (Lacy) and Sean Bailey (Harrison) all coming off the substitute’s bench in the second half.
