With an impending holiday upcoming I managed to take in two pre-season friendlies over the weekend amidst the hot weather, water was the order of the day.
I had already planned on heading to The Hive to watch Barnet in action for the first time this pre-season when I noticed that Carshalton’s home fixture with Met Police had been moved to Saturday morning at 11am, a quick check on the estimated time to get there of course and how close it put me to Harrow.
Heading to Colston Avenue was a chance to catch up with Robins boss Steve McKimm who took over at the end of last season following his departure from Tonbridge Angels whilst Met Police are one of the clubs who allow me to write a column for their programme over the course of a season.
With the temperatures on the rise throughout the day I wasn’t expecting a cut and thrust game, but that was exactly what I got for my money! Both sides were intent on mixing it up with short range passing and some longer balls over the top and attempting to catch out defenders .
The home side should have been in front inside five minutes, Jake Embery hitting the post with the visiting keeper beaten. As it was the Met took the lead from the penalty spot, Tom Read converting for the opening goal.
Carshalton’s equaliser came on the half hour mark, a nicely worked move saw one of the trialist’s find the back of the net. Just three minutes later the home side were in front, Tom Bradford who was impressive throughout the game applied a neat finish as the Robins grew into the match after the early setback.
The best goal of the game came seven minutes before the break, substitute Leo Hamblin skipped around three challenges around the penalty area, quick feet got him into a shooting position and the youngster made no mistake with the finish, a complete turnaround from the first fifteen minutes as the Met struggled to control the midfield possession.
The second half was more of a cagey affair as the Robins looked happy to sit on their lead whilst Met Police tried to up the ante as best they could but it took another penalty to get them back into the match, Archie Taylor also netting from the spot with a well taken shot past substitute keeper Tobi McKimm.
The Met should have been level two minutes later but Herson Alves missed his kick. Both sides had a further good chance in the last five minutes, Darryl Harrison seeing his shot cleared off the line by a Met defender while Alves saw his shot cannon off the far post and away to safety to leave Carshalton to take the win. If I get some league football like that this season I’ll be more than happy, both sides put some fantastic effort in given the temperatures.
Straight after the final whistle it was off to The Hive for Barnet vs Peterborough, two 1 hour games awaited once I battled through some London traffic. So far impressive showings from Dean Brennan’s new look squad and this would certainly provide a much sterner test with Posh at almost full strength in the first game.
With a much more solid look to the Bees than last season they matched their opponents toe to toe but it needed a smart save from Laurie Walker and a goal-line clearance from Moussa Diarra to keep the scoreline level at the first interval.
Midway through the second period, Barnet were in front, Ephron Mason-Clark beating the keeper at his near post and squeezing the ball home after a superb ball into his feet from Dale Gorman.
Two minutes later the Bees had a second, Mason-Clark again caused havoc and while the keeper got a hand to his effort Ryan De Havilland had an easy tap in. It wasn’t all one way traffic as Walker made a couple of fine stops as Peterborough tried to get back into the game but Barnet ran out deserved 2-0 winners.
The second game was more even although Posh took the lead inside five minutes after a couple of defensive errors. Barnet’s striking trialist had a couple of good chances to stake a claim for a contract but fluffed a one on one chance and screwed another past the post when well positioned.
Posh added a second in the fourth period to kill the game off as the second game Bees struggled to force any attempts on goal leaving Brennan with food for thought amongst some of his squad.
A good workout for 60 minutes each player and the intensity will ramp up going into the third week of pre-season with two more games this coming week, but it quietly seems to be slowly coming together at The Hive.
A week off in games for me but some time to put together promoting stuff for the blog and get to work on securing the next couple of episodes for my new podcast, Trev Talks, always something to be doing……….
Don’t get worn out Trevor!