Rambler wrote:

You can't read  much into the tea-leaves of a Friendly... but there were some encouraging signs for the future.  Congratulations first to whoever arranged this fixture and then made it happen on the night... 1465 (?) ... was  an excellent crowd, all wanting a glimpse into the future.  We started with all our new boys and looked lively. The right back position is clearly an issue at the moment as we had triallists in that position on both halves. There were one or two eye-catching performances:- from Piotr Petrynski.. who has got something of Dawes in him as regards defensive and attacking qualities. I thought Etha Vaughan looked pretty decent and Reece Fleet looked comfortable, and experienced. Canice Carroll seemed rusty and a bit vulnerable to me. Olaf K couldn't get into the game at all.. so we saw none of his qualities.  Ezio  & Harry P both looked  sharp and hungry.. which bodes well.
There was a complete change of personnel in the second half... The 2 triallists did creditably... one of them, the  bigger lad, looked very decent. Interesting to see if he gets more game-time.
These Friendlies are so much more valuable than an exclusive diet of visting smaller clubs. The  pace and intensity of 2 x League 2 outfits ( plus Yeovil) allow  Gary Horgan and his team are  a much quicker and better sense of who can cope with the pressures of National League South and means we go right into next season prepared for full-on battle.
BTW Who was Number 15 in the 2nd half. Academy?
 

I was told that the friendly was organised as part of the Dan Ellison transfer to Bristol Rovers last summer. A wise move in any sale to a local professional club but something that we need to do more and no doubt will now Mr Perrin is in town. 

The search to replace Alex Bray is clearly on. I thought Lewis Colwell did well last week but was used sparingly last night on the other side - presumably to allow the trialists game time. Neither looked like a definite thumbs up or thumbs down to me.  The number 15 was Bevan Cross, who is from the academy but has played a lot for Westbury over the last couple of seasons. Agree with Canice, he looked very very rusty, in fact it was one of the worst performances I can think of in a Chippenham shirt!!. The one who caught my eye was the attacker with no number who came on. Looked a real talent.  I also thought that Henry Sady looked good as well and is someone we should try to bring in.

Last edited by Sofa Score guy (05/7/2025 10:49 AM)

Friendly was part of the Dan Ellison transfer.

Good competitive game last night and some good performances. Trouble was you didn't know who half the players were and it would have helped if the team published had a number next to the name to help indentify them. Hopefully that will be sorted for the next game. There is nothing worse than commenting on one of your own player and not having a clue who they are.
One criticism and a carry over from last season this stupid short passing from goalkicks. The young lad who came on in the second half looked more than capable but the number of times he was put under unnecessary pressure by having the ball played back to him with 2 players bearing down on him was ridiculous. Maybe when we have conceded a few goals this season through this awful tactics the management might wake up to the fact it's pointless.
And finally maybe someone could clarify this for me. Was looking on the FA website and saw fa cup games on 2 August. It shows Melksham playing so if this is correct why haven't the club announced our game is off?

Sprinklers? 😂😂😂😂
Are you offering to pay the water bills then? 😁

If it is the case that it’s off you would have thought the club would have said something - we have a full time media and communications manager now for crying out loud!

On the media, I’m sure a lot on here don’t use social media, but I do and I was hoping we would have got a lot more than we have done so far. I really enjoy seeing all the teams come back for pre season and their training. Haven’t seen anything on our players which is a real shame given the new signings.

We just seem to advertise the usual things. What’s the point in having that as someone’s full time job?