Lye Town

A very tough and enjoyable pre season test,  i'd have been surprised if it had been anything less, pre 1971 I guess this would have been as big a game as Halesowen.  Plenty of intensity, the referee even had to get his card out in a friendly!

We bossed large parts of the game (although the Lye where getting on top towards half time) but without any end product and it is a worry - with or without Insall - where the goals are going to come from on a regular basis.  I thought it was going to take something good to break the deadlock, and in hindsight it was obvious who it would come from,  the script was written for it! welcome back Ben.  As tempting as it is to put him in the squad for the first league game after seeing that, it is still very early days in his return and that shouldn't be rushed.

I thought the fifty fifty draw when it was proposed at the last supporter's meeting was a better idea than the raffle and it seemed to be well received.

I watch quite a few Lye games across a season when Stour games don't coincide,i have to say i wasn't surprised with tonight's result.

Although Lye were parading a host of new player's compared to the last few seasons they were as usual,very well organised,very committed and well drilled by their management duo.

Losing the prolific Ricky Anslow is an obvious blow to Lye,if they'd been able to play him alongside James Spray up front then i certainly think they'd have scored at least once during a very good first half performance.

Well done to Lye,they certainly didn't look two divisions below us tonight and i may well go to Brocton on Saturday to watch their first league game of the season.

As for Stour………i'm not sure what to make of us at present.

Like my wifes cooking….good in parts but not consistently so.

The Canavan "love in" continues although we look a far better side as soon as he goes off and Louis Harris appears on the pitch.

For my money the midfield engine room would certainly see Harris and Tonks as starters and depending on formation Chilton and Dodd are a class above anybody else we've seen in pre season…..that said it was a joy to see Ben Billingham take to the pitch again.

Quite rightly Ben will get the plaudits for his quality goal ( worth admission money on it's own! ) but i watched him very closely,i was looking for other things in his performance following that terrible injury and i must say i was amazed at what i saw.

I thought Ben's mobility and movement would be severely restricted after the injury but within the first few minutes it was apparent he could twist,turn,escape defenders with pace and glide in the way he always did,it's a remarkable tribute to his surgical team,his physio and to the lad himself to be back in such fine fettle not much more than 9 months after the Matlock horror.

The "old chestnut" that won't go away ( and is constantly not addressed properly ) is the forward line.

Good luck to Jamie Insall at Hibernian but regardless of his eventual trial result we are TWO quality forwards short of a decent challenge this season and if we don't get that quality in during the next fortnight i foresee a potentially  decent side being hamstrung by a poor return in the goals for column.

Last night was my first opportunity to see our new-look side and came away impressed by our two central defenders and particularly by Sean Geddes Mark 2 aka Tom Tonks.

Lye proved to be tough opposition in a ''friendly'' but I can't recall our keeper having to make a worthwhile save.  

We seem to be well-off in the midfield area, particularly with Ben looking much sharper and fitter than expected and what a goal !!!

But, as we all know, we need a goal scorer. Don't think Gary was at the game and so I hope he was out there looking for that elusive needle in a haystack.

Having said that, our squad is much stronger than last season's and, if we can keep at least most of those satisfied who will not be playing on a regular basis, I am looking forward to the season ahead with optimism.

Yeah, GH was scouting abroad I gather.