# We played old guys at Walking Football to win their pub(M4A_128K)

An episode of [Footbal Beyond the Pitch](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6821032841), 19 Oct 2026, 20 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75855199/we_played_old_guys_at_walking_football_to_win_their_pub_m4a_128k.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:09] Speaker 1: Let's go.
[0:38] Speaker 2: Do you know what I was thinking would be a
[0:40] Speaker 2: really good video to do?
[0:41] Speaker 3: Is it that thing about lizards again?
[0:42] Speaker 1: Because I really don't think that's going to work.
[0:45] Speaker 4: No, well.
[0:47] Speaker 2: No, but I was thinking that it would be really
[0:49] Speaker 2: cool to do a video, like a challenge video, on
[0:51] Speaker 2: walking football.
[0:53] Speaker 1: Walking football?
[0:54] Speaker 2: What's that?
[0:58] Speaker 5: Oh.
[1:00] Speaker 1: Hello?
[1:02] Speaker 5: Yes, yes.
[1:03] Speaker 3: We'll be there. That was Uncle Damien. He has called
[1:07] Speaker 3: to challenge us to a game of walking football tomorrow.
[1:11] Speaker 3: If we win, we will get the keys to the
[1:13] Speaker 3: Old Red Lion Theatre pub in Angel, Islington, North London.
[1:17] Speaker 2: The keys to the Old Red Lion Theatre pub in Angel,
[1:20] Speaker 2: North Islington, London. That's the best football pub in London
[1:22] Speaker 2: to watch football in.
[1:23] Speaker 1: Yes.
[1:25] Speaker 2: But what if we lose?
[1:27] Speaker 1: I have to let someone go.
[1:38] Speaker 2: Well the only way we're going to beat those old
[1:40] Speaker 2: guys at walking football in this challenge is if I
[1:42] Speaker 2: take control and put together the greatest T4 team that's
[1:46] Speaker 2: ever been assembled We need.
[1:49] Speaker 6: Joe Devine JJ Bull John McKenzie Alice Devine Not Seb
[1:58] Speaker 6: JJ's friend Dave Hi, I'm Dave Ali and Phil.
[2:04] Speaker 2: But first, we need to get haircuts Welcome to Harlow Town!
[2:18] Speaker 1: What are we doing here?
[2:19] Speaker 7: This is Parringdon Pirates Walking Football Club at the Parringdon
[2:24] Speaker 7: Sports Centre in Harlow in Essex.
[2:25] Speaker 1: The club's been going for about five years.
[2:28] Speaker 8: We play in the Essex Football League, Walking Football League.
[2:30] Speaker 8: The over 65s have just won the league and The
[2:33] Speaker 8: over 70s have won two cup competitions.
[2:36] Speaker 2: Your nephew Joe Devine has been saying that this is
[2:39] Speaker 2: going to be easy for the Tifo team to win
[2:41] Speaker 2: today and I am starting to think that might not
[2:42] Speaker 2: be the case.
[2:43] Speaker 7: No chance. No chance. I think you're in for a shock.
[2:46] Speaker 7: Now forget it. Walking football doesn't mean that it's not
[2:49] Speaker 7: skillful football.
[2:50] Speaker 9: The rules of walking football are a lot like those
[2:52] Speaker 9: of normal small-sided football matches but there are some key differences. First,
[2:56] Speaker 9: there are six players a side. five outfield and one
[3:00] Speaker 9: goalkeeper second no shooting inside the penalty area third low
[3:05] Speaker 9: impact tackling only no contact no sliding tackles and no
[3:09] Speaker 9: leaning on your opponent four the ball must stay below
[3:13] Speaker 9: head height and five the referee has the option of
[3:16] Speaker 9: awarding a red yellow or blue card a blue card
[3:19] Speaker 9: is shown for things like unspotting behaviour showing dissent or
[3:23] Speaker 9: persistently infringing the laws of the game like running a
[3:26] Speaker 9: bad tackle or on pitch violence works too And last
[3:29] Speaker 9: but not least, no running or jogging with or without
[3:33] Speaker 9: the ball.
[3:33] Speaker 2: So if I'm doing that, that's walking, obviously.
[3:36] Speaker 1: That's walking, yeah. But if I.
[3:37] Speaker 2: If I do that, is that running?
[3:40] Speaker 7: It is running, yeah. Generally, they'd expect you to put
[3:44] Speaker 7: your heel down first. Or sometimes with a stiff leg.
[3:49] Speaker 2: So you can go faster if you take a really
[3:50] Speaker 2: long stride.
[3:51] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fine. If you get away with it.
[3:53] Speaker 2: See, for running, right? So if I... If I run
[3:55] Speaker 2: up like that.
[3:57] Speaker 2: So you're like, that's me.
[3:58] Speaker 1: That's not bad.
[3:59] Speaker 2: It's a bit of a run though, isn't it? Because
[4:01] Speaker 2: I'm going that.
[4:01] Speaker 1: You get away with that.
[4:02] Speaker 2: You get away with that?
[4:03] Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're addressing the ball, you get away with that.
[4:04] Speaker 2: That's, okay.
[4:06] Speaker 7: And also there's running off the ball, of course. People
[4:08] Speaker 7: are tempted to run into position. You get blown up
[4:10] Speaker 7: for that.
[4:11] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[4:11] Speaker 7: A lot of the time when people get blown up
[4:13] Speaker 7: for running, it's when they don't have the ball.
[4:19] Speaker 2: I think they're running quite a lot already.
[4:21] Speaker 1: Do you know?
[4:24] Speaker 2: It looks like they're running a lot, doesn't it?
[4:25] Speaker 1: It's fast.
[4:32] Speaker 2: That's running, that's 100% running. He's jogging.
[4:35] Speaker 10: Right, shut up.
[4:57] Speaker 2: This is how we're gonna win, right? We've got seven,
[4:59] Speaker 2: we can rotate a sub, so we have far more
[5:01] Speaker 2: fitness except for Joe than them. Watch out for that spider.
[5:04] Speaker 2: So what we're going to do is we're going to
[5:05] Speaker 2: play in a diamond with one in the middle. So
[5:08] Speaker 2: we're going to play as a goalie, obviously. Alice, you
[5:10] Speaker 2: want to play at the back, centre back. Yeah, back please.
[5:13] Speaker 2: So you play as the one there. Then we need
[5:15] Speaker 2: two players in the wide positions. Phil and John are
[5:18] Speaker 2: the wide players. John doesn't want to be wide. I
[5:20] Speaker 2: want to play in the middle.
[5:21] Speaker 1: He's not a wide player.
[5:22] Speaker 2: I'm playing in the middle.
[5:23] Speaker 1: I'm playing in the middle.
[5:24] Speaker 10: What?
[5:25] Speaker 3: I've got to match up against Uncle Double D.
[5:26] Speaker 2: You're either playing up front or wide. Up front?
[5:29] Speaker 1: I'll do it, sir. You're up front, okay. I can
[5:31] Speaker 1: play up front. You can play in the middle.
[5:34] Speaker 2: Who's out wide? Play near to me so we can
[5:36] Speaker 2: combine passes. I'll play wherever you want me, boss. You
[5:39] Speaker 2: want to play wherever you want?
[5:40] Speaker 1: Yes, boss.
[5:41] Speaker 2: Okay, cool. He says he'll play wherever you want. Well,
[5:43] Speaker 2: I'm going to decide where he goes now. I'm trying
[5:45] Speaker 2: to work out. I'm trying to also be nice to everyone.
[5:47] Speaker 2: Will you speak a bit louder?
[5:48] Speaker 1: No.
[5:48] Speaker 2: Do you want to go in goal?
[5:49] Speaker 1: You're tall. No, thank you.
[5:51] Speaker 2: Who wants to go in goal? Dave's in goal. Dave's
[5:53] Speaker 2: going to go on goal. Dave's rescued this side.
[5:55] Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, goalkeeper.
[5:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. That's great. Goalkeeper Dave. Goalkeeper Dave. Where am
[6:00] Speaker 2: I again? This is important. Coach, can I ask?
[6:02] Speaker 3: John looks decidedly unhappy that you're in the middle and
[6:04] Speaker 3: not him.
[6:05] Speaker 2: No, I'm not.
[6:05] Speaker 11: I'm fine.
[6:06] Speaker 2: John likes to dribble. I like to pass. I'll go
[6:08] Speaker 2: in the middle. I'll just be a pivot.
[6:10] Speaker 1: I'm better at passing.
[6:11] Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what you say or think.
[6:13] Speaker 3: Given that you've told me separately that you want to
[6:15] Speaker 3: win the charge.
[6:16] Speaker 2: He wants to get me away from the line-way.
[6:19] Speaker 1: I'm the one who picks the team.
[6:21] Speaker 3: I do think there's a conflict of interest.
[6:23] Speaker 2: What's John saying?
[6:35] Speaker 7: Joe Devine, how do you feel about JJ's strategy for
[6:38] Speaker 7: the for the game later on.
[6:39] Speaker 2: How do you think that went?
[6:41] Speaker 10: Is JJ in charge of the strategy?
[6:43] Speaker 5: You know, you can't just stand on the top of
[6:47] Speaker 5: a climbing frame and think that that makes you somehow authoritative.
[6:55] Speaker 2: I think that went really well. We all seem to
[6:57] Speaker 2: be on the same page. Everyone seems motivated and I
[7:00] Speaker 2: think the instructions were clear. Time is not linear, so
[7:04] Speaker 2: it moves within all realms.
[7:06] Speaker 3: When he was stood on the children's slide, I didn't
[7:08] Speaker 3: realise that was a real thing.
[7:10] Speaker 1: Well, it's like that in the office, isn't it, with JJ?
[7:11] Speaker 5: He sort of stands on that desk in the corner
[7:14] Speaker 5: and sort of shouts at everyone.
[7:16] Speaker 2: I'm going to be in the middle, you guys are
[7:17] Speaker 2: all on the periphery.
[7:19] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Dave.
[7:45] Speaker 11: I'm Chris Navin, I am 69 years old.
[7:50] Speaker 8: I'm Nick Devine, I'm 71 years old.
[7:55] Speaker 4: My name is Charles Crump and I'm 86.
[9:14] Speaker 5: Yeah I packed up when I was 24 for injury.
[9:21] Speaker 2: And never kicked a ball since. Oh that's odd, what
[9:24] Speaker 2: injury did you get?
[9:26] Speaker 1: Can I show you?
[9:27] Speaker 2: If you'd like to. Oh my word, is that a
[9:32] Speaker 2: cruciate ligament?
[9:34] Speaker 11: Yeah it's ligaments and both cartilages in one tackle.
[9:38] Speaker 2: Tackle?
[9:39] Speaker 11: One tackle, yes.
[9:40] Speaker 1: I ended my career.
[9:44] Speaker 2: Were you on a good career path at the time?
[9:46] Speaker 1: No, not really.
[10:01] Speaker 12: My name's Barnsey.
[10:13] Speaker 2: I play at the back.
[10:14] Speaker 13: They call me getting away Barnsey. So I do my
[10:17] Speaker 13: best to get in the way all the time. 68
[10:20] Speaker 13: in January, 67 and three quarters.
[10:24] Speaker 2: Joe, you should be here. I'm running around.
[10:26] Speaker 10: No, but you should be in the middle.
[10:33] Speaker 3: That's running.
[10:33] Speaker 2: Running! Can I shoot from a direct?
[10:37] Speaker 1: No, it's always indirect.
[10:38] Speaker 2: A little touch and you can smack it. A little touch.
[10:41] Speaker 12: There you go.
[10:45] Speaker 2: It's the toe poke. The straight toe poke.
[10:48] Speaker 1: The Joe poke.
[10:50] Speaker 2: It's back out.
[10:54] Speaker 1: Oh, there's a shudder from the sidelines.
[10:56] Speaker 2: You can't lose to Damien. I'm here, JJ.
[11:07] Speaker 1: Oh, pitiful, pitiful.
[11:09] Speaker 11: It's a contact.
[11:12] Speaker 2: You watch it, Uncle Damien.
[11:14] Speaker 1: How dare you.
[11:15] Speaker 12: Boo.
[11:15] Speaker 5: I don't know.
[11:17] Speaker 10: Is it me? Yeah, you should.
[11:22] Speaker 2: I haven't really got any energy left. Doesn't matter, you
[11:24] Speaker 2: just lock it.
[11:24] Speaker 3: Okay.
[11:29] Speaker 9: We're high pressing, Jamie, innit?
[11:32] Speaker 2: We were Gagan pressing. There we go.
[11:40] Speaker 1: And again, if you want.
[11:43] Speaker 7: Oh, oh, Ali?
[11:45] Speaker 3: Oh, * * * *!
[11:45] Speaker 1: Safe!
[11:46] Speaker 2: Just keep the ball away from Jones.
[11:48] Speaker 1: Can't be trusted.
[11:49] Speaker 3: JJ?
[11:49] Speaker 10: One-two?
[11:49] Speaker 12: One-two?
[11:57] Speaker 2: John, I'm behind you.
[11:58] Speaker 10: Dave, middle, middle. That's a tackle. I played football till
[12:08] Speaker 10: I was 41.
[12:09] Speaker 12: That's my love of the game.
[12:12] Speaker 2: I played till I was 41 years.
[12:15] Speaker 8: Old, even when I ruptured to McDonald's. Achilles and then
[12:25] Speaker 8: all of a sudden you stop playing and you do
[12:28] Speaker 8: miss it when you stop playing and then all of
[12:30] Speaker 8: a sudden you've got a chance to play again and
[12:33] Speaker 8: it's unbelievable.
[12:34] Speaker 2: Do you want my help?
[12:35] Speaker 1: Are you left and right?
[12:36] Speaker 2: I'm left footed. Yeah, I've seen you use it. John,
[12:43] Speaker 2: right side, I'm open!
[12:44] Speaker 1: No!
[12:44] Speaker 14: No!
[12:55] Speaker 10: Get in there!
[12:56] Speaker 12: What shape?
[12:57] Speaker 10: Alice!
[12:57] Speaker 12: What did it stand, Alice?
[12:58] Speaker 10: Take his legs!
[13:20] Speaker 12: As much as I love.
[13:25] Speaker 6: Him and every member of my family I am still determined.
[13:31] Speaker 13: To crush his bones.
[13:40] Speaker 10: There's a warning.
[13:50] Speaker 1: There's a warning, I've got a warning to you.
[13:51] Speaker 2: Why hasn't he got a warning?
[14:00] Speaker 10: Ali! John!
[14:03] Speaker 1: John!
[14:05] Speaker 10: What's happened there?
[14:10] Speaker 2: Nothing happened, Rev! John! Come on!
[14:15] Speaker 4: Come on!
[14:20] Speaker 2: Foul play.
[14:24] Speaker 1: Sinbin, three minute penalty.
[14:27] Speaker 2: Off you go. You let me down.
[14:32] Speaker 10: It's unbelievable.
[14:53] Speaker 2: Well, I think you have to think of teams like
[14:54] Speaker 2: that as really experienced, right? They've lived on the earth
[14:57] Speaker 2: twice as long as me.
[14:58] Speaker 3: I don't really know what JJ was talking about, but
[15:00] Speaker 3: he kept shouting Diamond at me.
[15:02] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Dave.
[15:03] Speaker 2: Some people who I won't name, but it rhymes with Bon,
[15:07] Speaker 2: they didn't do everything that was expected of them. He
[15:10] Speaker 2: seemed to think that the Diamond element was really important.
[15:13] Speaker 2: I can't be responsible for everyone. You know, I don't
[15:15] Speaker 2: want to blame individuals. I, as a manager, take responsibility, but....
[15:20] Speaker 1: It's John, by the way.
[15:29] Speaker 4: I've always been active all my life. I've been in
[15:31] Speaker 4: athletics all my life. And so I thought, well, I'll
[15:35] Speaker 4: come over there. I didn't know a soul. But they're
[15:39] Speaker 4: so welcoming. I mean, I don't know where else I
[15:42] Speaker 4: could go and get 24 carers for nothing.
[15:45] Speaker 3: Well, I think my opinion of this country is that
[15:47] Speaker 3: the population pyramid is upside down. And I came here
[15:50] Speaker 3: today to try to change that. But what actually happened
[15:53] Speaker 3: is that an old man clattered into me and I
[15:54] Speaker 3: got sent off.
[15:55] Speaker 8: I think I was absolutely polexed and I think I've
[16:00] Speaker 8: still got, my knee is still sore.
[16:02] Speaker 14: I don't like to speak ill of my family, but
[16:04] Speaker 14: I saw my brother's face and I know that look.
[16:07] Speaker 8: I think the referee done the right thing, booking and
[16:10] Speaker 8: then sending off, no doubt about it.
[16:12] Speaker 3: I was dismissed for something that was entirely not my fault.
[16:15] Speaker 3: I was innocent of it.
[16:16] Speaker 8: He's a big unit and I really felt it. I really, honestly, I'm, I'm, oh.
[16:22] Speaker 1: He approached me.
[16:24] Speaker 3: And he used my hands and strength to lower himself
[16:27] Speaker 3: to the floor through no aim of my own.
[16:31] Speaker 8: I don't know if you saw, I had to go off.
[16:34] Speaker 11: I was shocked by that incident, actually. And I just
[16:37] Speaker 11: hope that Mick can continue with his walking football career.
[16:41] Speaker 1: After that incident. The community aspect is really important. And
[16:51] Speaker 1: the camaraderie.
[16:52] Speaker 7: I think there's a lot of things that you can
[16:55] Speaker 7: do at this age, which are individual sports, whether it's
[16:59] Speaker 7: cycling or just walking and things like that.
[17:02] Speaker 1: But to come together as a group, it's a lot
[17:04] Speaker 1: of fun.
[17:04] Speaker 14: Yeah, it was great to meet Jo, the female player
[17:07] Speaker 14: who was here today representing the team that they have here.
[17:11] Speaker 14: I think they've got 16 players now since April. And
[17:16] Speaker 14: I'm going to be telling my team back at home,
[17:19] Speaker 14: bring your mum down, bring your grandma down. We'll get walking,
[17:22] Speaker 14: but we'll go in South London.
[17:24] Speaker 11: It's exercising without feeling like the chore of exercising because
[17:28] Speaker 11: you enjoy doing it so much. So it's like a double.
[17:32] Speaker 11: And as you just said, like the mental aspect of
[17:34] Speaker 11: it as well, the mental aspect is such a big
[17:37] Speaker 11: thing nowadays. And it is brilliant. As Mick said, he
[17:40] Speaker 11: got me into it after I had my knees done.
[17:43] Speaker 11: And I love it, I love every, twice a week
[17:45] Speaker 11: I love it.
[17:46] Speaker 1: I love coming out, yeah.
[17:47] Speaker 13: It's amazing the amount of players that I would have
[17:50] Speaker 13: known when I was playing years ago. And then when
[17:54] Speaker 13: we started playing and introduced her, they go, do you
[17:56] Speaker 13: know him? Yeah, oh yeah, I know him.
[17:57] Speaker 1: Do you know him?
[17:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, I know him.
[17:59] Speaker 1: It's great.
[17:59] Speaker 8: There's people who've lost their partners and they've come along thinking,
[18:05] Speaker 8: you know, what am I going to do? There are
[18:07] Speaker 8: some times in the download, we've got people who've come along,
[18:10] Speaker 8: we've got depressions, right? and we've encompassed them in the club.
[18:14] Speaker 8: And when we know that, we try to involve these
[18:17] Speaker 8: people in as much as possible. And for their mental wellbeing,
[18:22] Speaker 8: they absolutely love it and it's brilliant.
[18:29] Speaker 2: So much fun.
[18:30] Speaker 13: We scored in the last minute and it was absolutely fantastic.
[18:35] Speaker 4: I just really enjoyed being down here.
[18:38] Speaker 10: I didn't realise how much I missed team sport.
[18:41] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Dave.
[18:42] Speaker 8: Just come and try it. Join your local club. Join
[18:45] Speaker 8: your local walking football club.
[18:47] Speaker 1: Honestly, and you will not look back.
[18:53] Speaker 2: What's the secret to being good at walking football?
[18:56] Speaker 1: Walk, don't run.
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