After 8 years in charge of Ashton Prime, players past and present got together for Ashley Goldsmith's testimonial game.

There were some late drop-outs but there were still 20 players presents for the game played in really good spirit and enjoyed by those that came to watch.

In the purple 2011 kit, the "Legends" were led by Goldsmith with Dan Balcombe filling the keeper's jersey. A hungover Adam Sankey, former player of the year Chris Gilbert and 2014 winner Jamie Sykes made up the back 3. In midfield Pavel Polinski was the play-maker with the hard-working Scott Walters joined by the enigmatic Scott Lower. Goldsmith started up front with record scorer Joey Walker.

For Prime 2014 there was a full complement of 11 players with Rich Excell donning the gloves, a back 4 of Buckland, Sander, Ellis and Cary, a midfield quartet of Flamank, Nowak, Goulding and Mazurkiewicz with Pete Ferguson joined up front by 10 year old son Josh.

Injured Matt Westcott sportingly reffed the game in his jeans and t-shirt and as Cary and Ellis formed an orderly queue for putting in the first heavy tackle on Goldsmith, the Fergusons got the game underway.

It wasn't long before the class of 2014 took the lead - making the most of their numerical advantage as Ferguson senior and then Nowak rolled in goals with the Legends defence stretched to bursting point.

Josh Ferguson was making mugs of several men 25 years older than him as they continued to dominate and they should have gone 3-0 up when Cary hit the bar and then Balcombe made an excellent save from the rebound from point-blank range. But the Legends came close with Goldsmith's header going wide and Excell forced into a couple of saves.

With the game split into 3 "thirds" of 30 minutes, the players got to the first break and Goldsmith rallied the troops - asking for more from his big players - and one of the biggest stepped up!

Walker won an early corner and after the blues failed to clear, Goldsmith miss-hit a shot into the ground and Lower with his back to goal managed to divert the ball off his knee and into the net.

The Legends were now swarming forward and Goldsmith dragged a shot just wide before clipping the post from 25 yards as Excell watched on. Soon it was 2-2 as Lower wriggled past Excell and despite a suspicion of handball he tapped home.

But the blues quickly restored their lead as Mazurkiewicz smashed home first-time after Goulding surged down the left.

The goal of the game came soon after as Lower arrowed a shot into the corner of Excell's net from the corner of the box.

Mazurkiewicz and Fergie added to their tallies as the Legends defence went AWOL but Lower was on hand to incredibly notch his 4th goal in a magical 40 minutes or so.

So it was 5-4 at the 2nd break but the Legends levelled matters when Polinski looped a header over Excell and soon after Westcott called for full-time and a penalty shootout.

A "first to five" rule was implemented to prolong the agony and Goldsmith grabbed the ball and stepped up to take the first pen. He struck it well but Excell was in the mood to be the pantomime villian and he defied his busted ankle and the fact he was wearing glasses to spring like a cat to his left and make the save! Bastard!

Josh showed Ash how to do it by sending Balcombe the wrong way before Polinski slotted home beyond Excell.

Ellis then scored before running off 50 yards to celebrate with a passing magpie! Joe Walker's goal coupled with Flamank's shanked miss made it 2-2. Sankey then stepped up and shanked his into the ground and in!

Misses for Sander and Tom "never gonna take a pen again" Cary meant that the Legends ran out 5-3 winners - to needlessly enthusiastic celebrations from Goldsmith.

All in all it was a cracking afternoon and thanks go to Sander and Jamie for organising the game, Matt for reffing and to all of the Legends for making the effort to come along and play the game in such a good spirit - maybe we should do this every year!