York’s American Football team will be looking to put a disappointing season behind them and repeat their Roses heroics of last year.
In what President James Speck admits was a “disappointing season” the Centurions struggled to second bottom in the table, their only win coming in the opening match of the season against Bradford. However Speck believes that the team were unlucky, having just fallen short on a number of occasions and that the team continues to show “good spirit” heading into the Roses fixture.
Last year’s Roses will always be memorable for the Centurions and a great milestone for the club, as it was there that they scored their first Roses victory over Lancaster. Speck remembers the match as “a brilliant game, one of the best I’ve played in. Winning was great for Sam Asfahani as he created the club and got us into Roses. It really made last roses a great experience for our guys.”
This year’s match promises to be a tightly contested affair. Both sides have had quite poor seasons, although Lancaster have some momentum behind them after a big win in their final match. However in a one off match in what no doubt will be a highly charged atmosphere quite literally anything could, and probably will happen.
Speck is hoping that memory of last year’s heroics will spur the team on in this year’s tournament, particularly with home advantage of their side. “I’m feeling confident for this years Roses,” he says, “we’ve got lots of game changing players, in particular quarterback Rob Wickham, in our squad and we have been on an intensive training regime, with the right preparation I believe we have the tools to get the job done.”