Goals galore as Marcus Tudgay shines alongside Chris Waddle in Sheffield Wednesday’s blue and white once again

A crowd of 2,850 people turned up to watch a group of Wednesday legends battle it out against their Doncaster Rovers counterparts for local charity, The Eve Merton Dreams Trust

The trust was set up in 2011 after Eve Merton, a Doncaster woman, who sadly passed away due to ovarian cancer, and they say their aim is ‘to help the people of Doncaster who are suffering with serious or terminally ill cancer’, adding that ‘the monies we raise will contribute towards patients & their families in fulfilling a dream or granting a wish, if only for a day.’

And fans certainly got their money’s worth as they raised tens of thousands of pounds for Eve’s Trust, with 12 goals being scored between the sides in a 6-6 goalfest at the Keepmoat Stadium.

As you might expect in a game made up of former professionals, some long since retired, and plenty of non-players who have done their bit for the charity cause, there were almost as many injuries as goals – however hopefully none of them are too serious.

Fans were treated to a quartet of goals from on-fire forward, Marcus Tudgay, after a standout performance from the Owls’ Man of the Match, while there were also a couple of those famous drops of the shoulder from 60-year-old Chris Waddle – who went off at half time.

Lee Bullen turned Franz Beckenbauer to set up Tudgay as Wednesday fought to to get back level in the second half, and there was a bit of a star turn from the Owls’ 2005 Play-Off final hero, Glenn Whelan, who was a late addition to the starting XI and was then brought back on when the chips were down at 5-3.

Supporters, starved of live football for so long, chanted the names of legends throughout the encounter, with Des Walker, Ross Wallace – who scored a beautiful left-footed piledriver – and Bully all getting a bit of preferential treatment for the vocal Wednesdayites in the North and East Stands.

There were some goalkeeping heroics from Tom Crosby towards the end, but he wasn’t able to stop Rovers’ sixth goal that led to the eventual shootout.

But he wasn’t to be denied, as he saved the host’s seventh penalty before Lewis Ellse hammered home the winning penalty moments later, causing Bullen to raise his arms in celebration just as he had done 16 years ago today when the Owls lifted the Play-Off final trophy at Cardiff – although maybe with slightly less vigour.

It was Wallace who scored Wednesday’s other two goals in normal time on top of Tudgay’s four, while Colin Cramb, Paul Green (x2), Gary McSheffrey and Matt Mills got the goals for Doncaster in a topsy turvy game that was full of fun for everybody involved.

Goals: Tudgay (8, 25, 56, 64), Cramb (17 pen), Green (21, 28), Wallace (45, 84), Brown (48), McSheffrey (52), Mills (88).