Pre season friendlies.

I hear we're playing Kiddie at home.

Any dates yet for any of the games?

I hope someone has the good sense to arrange a match with Lye,what with their promotion and our close proximity a decent crowd would turn up and they would provide a very competitive opposition.

Agree that it would be good to play Lye, but only as one of our first couple of games. We need to be playing better opposition (with all due respect) the closer we get to the start of the season, although we are a bit hamstrung by not being able to play too many games at home. A Conf club is not going to want to play us on their home turf the week before the season - not a good prep for them, and hardly crowd-pulling either.

The obvious problem with Lye is that neither of us has priority on our grounds at that time of year so it might be hard to fix up to suit both teams.

Hopefully our pre-season will be well planned to prepare the players properly, as far as possible given the limitations we have to work with.

Tues 15/7 Kiddy home
Sat 19/7 Boldmere away
Tues 22/7 Evesham away
Thurs 24/7 Stourport away
Sat 26/7 Stratford away
Tues 29/7 Solihull home
Sat 2/8 Sutton Coldfield away

When's the Bartley Green friendly?

If we could get Worcester as well, or someone like that, would be a good schedule.

TRM wrote:Tues 15/7 Kiddy home
Sat 19/7 Boldmere away
Tues 22/7 Evesham away
Thurs 24/7 Stourport away
Tues 29/7 Solihull home
Sat 2/8 Sutton Coldfield away

Surely we could have fitted in a match v Lye Town before taking on Kiddie?

I know the "old chestnut" about cricket pitch etc,etc always get's wheeled out for both clubs but if we're playing two home matches in July anyway then i think we could've squeezed Lye in first.

Isn't the Kiddy game technically the final installment of Rowey's transfer fee?

Aside from a bit of local rarity value I'm happier playing Kiddy than Lye, bearing in mind that all bar one of our other friendlies are against teams from below us. The bigger picture is the thing - we've got to get the preparation right for the next 9 months and that means getting used to playing better sides than Lye (again, all due respect) as much as possible.

TRM wrote:Isn't the Kiddy game technically the final installment of Rowey's transfer fee?

Aside from a bit of local rarity value I'm happier playing Kiddy than Lye, bearing in mind that all bar one of our other friendlies are against teams from below us. The bigger picture is the thing - we've got to get the preparation right for the next 9 months and that means getting used to playing better sides than Lye (again, all due respect) as much as possible.

We play Stourport,Evesham and usually the now defunct Bartley Green every year.

I can't see the point of replicating these matches every year or adding the raw excitement of a trip to Boldmere is going to improve our pre season anymore than previous pre season campaign's.

A Stour v Lye match would hold more local rivalry and have a bit of spice about it in my opinion TRM.

I might have misunderstood what you meant by "Surely we could have fitted in a match v Lye Town before taking on Kiddie?"

I took it to mean you would have preferred to play Lye INSTEAD of Kiddy - am I right? Or did you mean literally "before"?

Perhaps we have tried and just haven't been able to get it to fit for both teams. Perhaps we had the choice of one or t'other and went for Kiddy on the basis that it would be a tougher game plus they have that contractual obligation to play us and the chance might not be there in forthcoming seasons.

Perhaps we're still trying to fix something up? Six friendlies is not a lot compared with most recent seasons, although nine or ten last season was probably too many. I would be surprised if at least one more isn't arranged against somebody or other.

TRM wrote:I might have misunderstood what you meant by "Surely we could have fitted in a match v Lye Town before taking on Kiddie?"

I took it to mean you would have preferred to play Lye INSTEAD of Kiddy - am I right? Or did you mean literally "before"?

Perhaps we have tried and just haven't been able to get it to fit for both teams. Perhaps we had the choice of one or t'other and went for Kiddy on the basis that it would be a tougher game plus they have that contractual obligation to play us and the chance might not be there in forthcoming seasons.

Perhaps we're still trying to fix something up? Six friendlies is not a lot compared with most recent seasons, although nine or ten last season was probably too many. I would be surprised if at least one more isn't arranged against somebody or other.

No Rich,of course the Kiddie friendly is very important IF a bit early in my opinion.

Lye are now in the new "Alliance" division,it's not too long ago we were there ourselves and we're only two divisions ahead of them in reality.

It's just my opinion but i thought a competitive match against our closest local rival would have been of value to both clubs and would've brought a healthy gate to split as well.

I'd have prefered to have started friendlies with a lower value opponent than Kiddie anyway in an ideal world.

Also away to Stratford on Sat 26th July.

The obvious question is why do we keep playing friendlies against the same teams every season, after all if we're going to play friendlies against lower teams why no chose someone else for a change.  As they say variety is the spice of life.

I totally agree with DA about playing Lye either home or away, but are they our nearest rivals or is Dudley Sporting nearer 

Anything to be read into the friendly-or lack of it-against Halesowen?

So just the 7 friendlies in 17 days (at the moment)! Im sure we can fit a few Monday, Wednesday & Friday games in to the mix as well if we try hard enough!   

One more added...

Sat 12/7 Bewdley away
Tues 15/7 Kiddy home
Sat 19/7 Boldmere away
Tues 22/7 Evesham away
Thurs 24/7 Stourport away
Sat 26/7 Stratford away
Tues 29/7 Solihull home
Sat 2/8 Sutton Coldfield away

And with the NPL not kicking of until 16th August, will we try to fit at least one more in between the 2nd and the 16th? Could play Halesowen with them in the same boat as us on that score - would either team want to do that? How many other clubs might be available on 9th August? Most will be in competitive action or already have friendlies lined up.

Gap filled!

Sat 12/7 Bewdley away
Tues 15/7 Kiddy home
Sat 19/7 Boldmere away
Tues 22/7 Evesham away
Thurs 24/7 Stourport away
Sat 26/7 Stratford away
Tues 29/7 Solihull home
Sat 2/8 Sutton Coldfield away
Sat 9/8 Romulus away (at Sutton)

Safe to say I won't be going to that one!

Deep joy! Will struggle to get to more than the home games to be honest. Save a few 'favours' for the regular season!

Will get to the home games, but the only away games that I'd be that bothered about are Evesham and Stratford as I've neer seen us play at either ground. Trouble is, we're away in Ireland that week, so I'm going to have to wait another 12 months, although Evesham are a cert for one Cup draw or another, obviously...

CBA with Evesham or Stratford and I'll be in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games when the Solihull and Stourport games are on. Will do the Kiddy Harriers game, possibly the three Sutton Coldfield games. Bewdley may depend on the weather!

Also I think Evesham tried to charge Leam £9 last year? Not paying that for a glorified training session.

Ironically the only new ground would be Bewdley but I'm away for that one!

Reduced admission prices for our home friendlies against kiddy and Solihull.

Adults £5
Concessions £3
Children 12-16 £2

A post on the Kempster forum says the Romulus friendly on 9th August might be played at Lindridge Road, which is right up by the Toll Road/A38. Anyone got any news about this?

Hope we get a decent gate for the visit of Kiddie this week.

Really looking forward to it to be honest,be good to see all the old faces.

If you read this Brian…….i've already polished the first of the many £1 coins you'll filtch from me over the coming months   

Devil's Advocate wrote:
If you read this Brian…….i've already polished the first of the many £1 coins you'll filtch from me over the coming months   

Fear not my friend, on this occasion you may purchase a diet coke with your highly polished groat.
I don't bother with MotM at friendlies, too much ars*ing about, players on and off like its a bl**dy train station.

I shall start when the real matches start and I look forward to trying to spot your titfer in the crowd so I can relieve you of your pound coin.