READY TO SHOOT ON SOUND
THE goal came from nowhere - three quick passes, a foot over the ball and just a faint drop of the shoulders.
It was enough. The defender bought the dummy, the keeper was committed, the net bulged.
It was a Saturday afternoon soccer match, the sort game played everywhere from Scotland to Cornwall.
There was just one thing that separated the contest from any one of thousands of football games around the country - none of the players could see.
But the North's first team of partially-sighted footballers lack nothing in long-term vision,
They are soon to start playing in a national league and have issued ambitious battle-cry: It's Atlanta or bust."
Lee Cawkwell of South Shields, Tyneside has gathered a ten strong squad of players - four of them registered blind - to compete in the British Football Association for the Visually Handicapped six-a-side league.
"They pick a British team to compete at the Paralympics," says Newcastle United fan Lee. "And with the 1996 competition in Atlanta coming up, we've got a lot to play for.
The sport, which enjoyed demostration status at the Barcelona Games is pushing for full recognitoin in two years' time.
Lee who suffers from Weber's disease, said "I woke up one morning three years ago and the central field of vision in my right eye had gone. "A month later the left one went as well."
Lee played in the league while studying computing at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford, where former Carlisle United defender Tony Larkin is head of leisure.
"There are not enough visually impaired people to play locally, so they have to go national,"says Larkin, who made orer 150 appearances for the Blues from 1981 to 1984.
"We ve got college teams and teams of former students who have started their own clubs, playing six-a-sides on a monthly basis."
With 100 miles seperating his native Tyneside from the nearest club, Lee decided it was time the region had it's own team.
"I've got 10 lads from the area and i've got the loan of strips and the use of facilities in South Shields," he said.
Peripheral sight, sound rather than vision will lay the foundation for a winning side. And of course, hard work.
When you see the best teams it's all about morale and shouting he explains. "They're all mates and they're all pulling for each other,"
"When you get to know everybody and the way each other plays you can build up a real understanding."
With that sort of teamwork, even the completely blind players can play successfully, and the only real clue to their condition is a ball stuffed with ball-bearings which makes a noise when kicked!
The team's league season lasts from October to April and includes trips to London, Birmingham and Manchester. and, hopefully for his players, promotion to the first division.
Team coach Steve Ayton, also from South Shields, is upbeat about his charges' prospects.
"Realistically, in our first year we just want to avoid finishing in the bottom two.
"But having seen the lads train I think a top three place might just be possible."
The 23-year-old, who has been on a one-year coaching course with Sunderland FC, admits, "I thought that they might have had trouble picking each other up, but l'm really impressed with what l've seen."
The squad, who are already sweating it out at tough weekly training sessions, pass the ball sweetly, shoot accurately and keep efficiently.
Lee says: "When people actually come and watch partially-sighted football I think they get a big surprise.
"People do adapt and it is played to a very high standard."
With borrowed shirts, no home ground and travelling expenses to pay for, the team's first major battle will be to find sponsorship.
So for now, dreams of sunny Atlanta in1996 will just have to wait.
