Pulsating charity match was fitting tribute to former Letchworth football coach who loved the game

A minute's silence was held before the match. (Image: Archant)

Letchworth Garden City Eagles played out a pulsating 6-6 draw with Stotfold FC on Sunday in memory to Dino Comparetto, who lost his battle with cancer at the age of 55 in December of last year.

Dino lived with his wife Annette in Hitchin and, aside from being an avid Ipswich Town fan, he was also a taxi driver in Hitchin and the surrounding area.

Eagles club development officer Gary Williams said: “It was a fantastic day with the sun shining.

“The game was played in good spirits with Sean Penny’s team of ex-players taking a 4-0 lead to half time – a much younger team than my coaches.

Dino's charity football match. (Image: Archant)

“However, as always, we dug deep and ended the game at 6-6, partly due to my masterstroke of playing with 13 players for the last 25 minutes. The officials didn’t notice, but it was all in good spirits.

“We had Dino’s two sons, Marco and Leo, as our strikers, with Leo scoring a penalty to bring us back into the game.

“However a penalty shoot-out saw the ex-players coached by Dino win 4-1 and a trophy was presented to Sean by Annette. But MacMillan Cancer Support was the real winner on the day, as we raised more than £1,000 for the charity.

“Dino would have been proud of his family and sons – it was an emotional day but a pleasure to see his wishes come true.

Dino's charity football match (Image: Archant)

“What has also been nice is the amount of money coming in from people that have heard about this, such as The Red Hart pub in Hitchin donating it’s Sunday night quiz entry fee – it’s been very touching.

“I would personally like to thank all those involved that made this happen – Home Call Carpets, KLM Sports, TPS Visual Communications, the officials, the players and all those that kindly donated raffle prizes and came along on the day.”