[ Tue 23rd Jul ] v Ampthill Town, KO 7:45pm AWAY

[Bob's Bitch]

5-3 :lol: :lol:

[Trek]

Some of these defenders are obviously not doing much to persuade the management they ought to be in Starms starting XI.

[Trek]

@AFCRD: Full time, 5-3. Plenty of entertainment but a game the defence will want to forget!

Perhaps a defence we will want to forget.

[Bob's Bitch]

Any result in a friendly makes me go 'meh' and this is no different. Meh.

[Trek]

Any result in a friendly makes me go 'meh' and this is no different. Meh.

Agreed but by the sounds of those tweets and BR's earlier post it is concerning that we may be a little exposed in defence. We know Hopey and Parky won't be starting the season. Will be interesting to see if Deeney and Clarke are signed.

[BartonRaz]

Any result in a friendly makes me go 'meh' and this is no different. Meh.

Agreed but by the sounds of those tweets and BR's earlier post it is concerning that we may be a little exposed in defence. We know Hopey and Parky won't be starting the season. Will be interesting to see if Deeney and Clarke are signed.

I'm not going to lose any sleep over tonights game on the basis that only 4/5 would start if a full strength side were fielded, but it is slightly concerning that nobody played in a totally unfamiliar position tonight and yet we still looked so inept defensively, with Sam Brown the only exception. Worst player on the pitch however was the Ampthill goalkeeper. He had to be at least slightly blind, there can be no other explanation!

As Trek just alluded to assuming Hope and Parky won't be available for a while, what does that actually leave us with? Hopefully Deeney and Clarke were simply unavailble tonight and haven't been released because on tonights evidence we need them.

Up front we were actually excellent, and one or two of the midfielders played well too. Dunkley won every header and Koriya was lively as always, but the long and the short of it is we've got 2 and a half weeks to sort the defence out.

[sandringhamdiamond]

I hate being negative and I know its only pre-season but I'm a bit disappointed with this result, apart from a couple of trialist it was a pretty strong team, in defence we had our first choice full backs, Gillingwater is a first team player as has played CB for us before. midfield Gearing and King(when he signs) will be regulars, Dent is good player and will be hoping to get a run in the first team and upfront we had Dunkley and Koriya, and we had a strong bench aswell with Alfie, Ben, Lance and Grainger.

I think Starms had plenty of work to do before we go to Deeping cause I think we will need to hit the ground running

[Trek]

I think Starms had plenty of work to do before we go to Deeping cause I think we will need to hit the ground running

I don't think people should run away with the idea that it's going to be easy this season. I've said all along that our first league match will be a stern test. Deeping finished 5th last term and have clearly strengthened their squad in the summer. They drew 2-2 against Stamford last night and I think a draw on the 10th August would be a good result for us.

[Three of Diamonds]

I'm really not concerned with pre season results. Deakin to come back and players getting game time is all good as far as it goes. Lots for the management to work on yet but look how it went last season

[Pigman]

I'm not worried at all, no peaksy or Starms there yesterday either remember, and we had a few spells in the game where things really came together and looked good. Overall it was average at best if I'm honest, at times in the second half we were poor - but did not matter? Not a jot !!

This is pre-season folks, about fitness, about just getting the feel of the ball again, the two centre halves yesterday to my knowledge hadn't played together before and I think I'm right in saying gilly has just come back from holiday - it looked it at times. No disrespect meant, but ash in goal didn't look fit and seemed to be struggling with a hip/groin problem - not a recipe for a great game.

Tomorrow is an XI game I'm led to believe, so i expect little from that too - if the same is delivered on the 10th then I will get concerned, but people who saw Saturdays game have led me to believe we looked good - that'll do me !! Little steps towards the start !!