The Western Lodge - A tribute to our fathers

[WestLodge]

The Western Lodge was the local pub that my friends and I were raised in. A couple of times a week when our fathers were home we would go out to the pub. It had a lovely family feel. You had all the dad sitting at the bar, around the darts board and pool table. Drinking pints and laughing amongst themselves. The mother's gossiping around the tables, sharing the latest who is who and whatever. Then out the back of the pub, you had a field with goals. That's where you would find me and my friends. Football was our passion and The Western Lodge was our home turf. Every Sunday we would come down to watch our dads play in the local pub team. Win, Lose or draw, we would always be grateful to come down and watch them play. After every home match we would be straight back to the pub and the atmosphere would always pick up. Our childhoods were amazing, a carefree existence. How I wish we could go back to those days. 10 years ago.

Now, my friends and I are still in our hometown. The West Lodge is still the local drinking spot and we play for the Sunday league team. Nothing ever changes in this little town. Apart from the loss of four local heroes. See, our fathers were not just keen drinkers and footballers, but also RAF soldiers by trade. They vowed to protect their families and their country. One fatal evening whilst on deployment in Iraq, their camp was attacked and our fathers were taken defending their country to the bitter end. A shock to everyone who knew them, hundreds turned out for their funerals. Everyone gathered at The West Lodge and paid their respects to the fallen soldiers and tributes were placed upon the walls of the pub to four of their most loyal customers.

Their childhood dreams were never to join the RAF though. Not to start with at least. Of course, like every other boy in their day, they wanted to be a footballer. The dream of winning the English first division with their boyhood club, Hull, and the European Champions Cup. They never got to achieve their original dreams, but just like our fathers before us, we dreamed the very same. Aged 18, we all still dreamed the same. However, where we differed was, whilst we grew up as Hull fans, our dream was to take West Lodge to their pinnacle of English and European football for our fathers. So between ourselves, the people of the town and The West Lodge owners, we grouped together and bought ourselves into the 9th tier of English football, Northern Counties East Premier. Our mission, to take this club as far as we could. We told ourselves that we would play for as long as we could keep up. I would also manage the club, it was a long shot given that none of us had any experience, a couple of kids studying PE at college but we had to do it to honour our fathers.

West Lodge Football Club. Hamilton. Hedley. Blake. Sampson. Remember the names.​

 

[WestLodge]

September 12th: We had entered the Northern Counties East Premier and assembled a team for the new season. None of us had any idea what to expect or how well we could even do. We had said that we would give it 10-15 years to see what we could do, but none of us had any idea how long we would even last as a club. None of that mattered right now though. Today was just about getting past the first game and we had made the hour's journey to Maltby. Our first ever competitive game to prove ourselves, to take the first step towards making our fathers proud. We arrived at Muglet lane with the expectation of a whole town on our shoulders and for players who had never performed above a Sunday league level, the pressure was enough to break a man. An attendance of 102, including the 6 home fans we had brought on the trip. Our first game began now.

What a game it was. After just 7 minutes, Hamilton scored his and West Lodge’s first ever goal with a neat finish from 10 yards out. The lead didn’t last long however as we were pegged back just 2 minutes later, leaving us no time to ride the high of an early lead. However, Hamilton was a menace all game, adding to his tally after 38 minutes to reinstate our lead before completing his hat trick on his competitive debut in the 93rd minute to register West Lodge’s debut victory in their debut game.

What a start to the journey it was, the feeling on the bus journey back to Hull was electric. Whilst it may not have meant the same to everyone else, the feeling amongst the four of us was of belief. We all wanted to do this but we knew we weren't professional footballers, it was never going to be a walk in the park and many times we were going to pull out. Today however, today was a little reminder that maybe we can do this. We aren't alone. There will be plenty of help along the way, maybe we can take West Lodge further than anyone expects us to and honour our fathers.​