Due to the ongoing Covid situation, for the first time since 10th March, we were able to welcome our supporters to the Grassroots Stadium together with those of our friends and neighbours from Aylesbury Utd.

From our point of view the day off the pitch was a massive success, the various Covid regulations were adhered to by players and spectators alike and we cannot praise highly enough the entry by donation which raised much needed funds.

On the field we "released" Will Salmon and Jack Sunderland to get valuable minutes in the Ressies and had Joe Naylor, Joe Cowan, Will Foley, Kevin McManus, Adam Murphy,Connor Goodliffe and George Zammitt unavailable for various reasons.

Our opponents started sharply and playing down the slope a combination of their good play and some sloppiness by ourselves meant a number of crosses fizzed across our area without being quite converted. Slowly without ever really dominating we got back into the game without threatening too much apart from a well worked move down our right which resulted in a decent Prince Nimoh cross.

Aylesbury with a number of our "old " boys inc Max Hercules, Mark Riddick, Ollie Hogg, Jack Hopwood and in the second half Lee Stobbs, played some tidy attacking football without quite applying the finishing touch and custodian Dave Saunders made one great save and generally handled the ball well.

After some 30 mins it slowly became obvious that our lack of games, this was only our second runout pre season, and lack of squad training due to local Covid concerns over the last 7/10 days was having an effect.

We reached half time with a 0-0 scoreline and playing down the slope we hoped to get into the game. The Ducks, however,picked up where they left off and made us work hard to stay in the game.

With the FA Cup next Tue we began to introduce subs to save players for the more important fixture. United took the lead with what appeared to be a harsh penalty after 52 mins converted by Max Hercules.

Two decent strikes by Callum Shortt and Prince Nimoh produced decent saves but a second penalty after 74 mins effectively confirmed the outcome.
As ever no lack of effort from this squad and when possible we played some tidy football before a 3rd after 86 mins ended the scoring.

Special mention to Paolo Bagatti and especially Harrison Cornick for their contributions.

Once again thanks to everybody from both Clubs and onwards and upwards.
Hopefully see some of you at Easington FC on Tue in the FA Cup 7.30 ko.

Team D.Saunders, P.Bagatti, H.Cornick, G.Terblanche, P.Nimoh, S.Bonner, C.Blake, W.Iroegu, O.Butler, C.Shortt, C.Asante

2nd half subs.
J.Pitts, C.O'Gorman, L.Barkers-Obua, S.Marshall, R.Byron, J.Chott, F.Hercules.

Tweet