DORCHESTER Town stalwart Brian Benjafield is marking 15 years' of service with a testimonial match against an Arsenal XI tonight at the Jewson Stadium (7pm).
Dorchester's commercial manager will be in the dugout while Magpie legends such
as Matt Holmes, Mark Ormerod, Andy Harris,
Scott Morgan, Tommy Killick, Matt Groves and Owen Pickard take to the field. Current Magpie Darren Watts is also expected to feature, as is young keeper Sean Lillington.
The Gunners' line-up will be made up of future stars from their reserve and youth teams. However, Arsenal hero Tony Adams will be guest of honour at the game.
Benjafield said: "I'm really looking forward to seeing a few old faces and I'm happy to get the testimonial because the idea has been floating around for a while now. I won't be playing but I will be on the touchline assisting Shaun Brooks.
"The draw for us is that we have got an Arsenal XI coming down and a lot of thanks should go to Stuart Morgan for sorting that out and helping to bring Tony Adams as well."
The former Bournemouth and Weymouth midfielder, who was assistant-manager at Dorchester under former bosses Stuart Morgan and Mark Morris, says he has plenty of fond memories from his time at the county town club.
advertisement
He added: "The good times by far outweigh the bad, such as going to Oxford United in the FA Cup when Stuart Morgan was manager. We may have lost 9-1 but reaching the first round is always a great achievement for a non-League side.
"Then, under Mark Morris, we played Wigan, who are now in the Premier League, away in the first round of the Cup and were leading after about ten minutes.
"We had the chance to go 2-0 up but eventually lost 3-1, however, we didn't disgrace ourselves."
Despite seeing the Magpies relegated from the Blue Square South this season Benjafield is confident they can bounce back from the disappointment.
He said: "The club's been relegated before but bounced back so it's not the end of the world.
"I've enjoyed my time at the club and I want to see the club get back where it belongs and higher."
Tickets for tonight's game can still be purchased at the ground.
* Richard Smith and June Pinder have each won a pair of tickets for tonight's match courtesy of the Echo's Magpies' Competition.
Posted by: castrol r, dorchester on 11:27pm Tue 6 May 08
three cheers for bengie a true clubman ,not a bad player in his day ,loyal assistant to stuart morgan (a real manager if only we had one now)and a thouroughly nice guy good luck to you bengie
three cheers for bengie a true clubman ,not a bad player in his day ,loyal assistant to stuart morgan (a real manager if only we had one now)and a thouroughly nice guy good luck to you bengie
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
