THE first in what is hoped will be a long series of fundraising football matches on the Isle of Wight, in support of a national mental health charity, proved to be a big success.
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Bryn Turner, the Island's team manager of southern operations for Scotia Gas Networks (SGN), aims to raise thousands of pounds in aid of the Mental Health Foundation through a series of football matches held over the course of the football season.
Also part of the first team management set up at Brading Town Football Club, Bryn has created an SGN team to face emergency services sides and one from Island Roads.
The campaign got underway on Sunday with SGA taking on a Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue side, at the Peter Henry Ground in Brading.
The match may have finished 8-0 to SGN, watched by a sizeable crowd, but it was the Mental Heath Foundation who were the real winners, with £400 raised, through the gate by donations.
The scorers were Ryan Gardener and Mitch Walker, with both bagging a hat-trick, and Dan Hooker and Jordan Brownrigg, with a 30-yard volley, adding the extras.
Bryn has set a minimum target of £1,000, but is aiming much higher.
SGN's next match will be against an Isle of Wight NHS paramedics side on Sunday, November 19, kick-ff 1pm, with other fixtures against the police, Prison Service and Island Roads currently being arranged.
Bryn, who hopes to keep fixtures against these sides going every year, said: "I have already seen some Island Saturday League sides organising games against the Fire Service for the charity, which is amazing."
SGN has also been invited to play a match against the police's national squad, on the mainland at a venue and on a date yet to be fixed.
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