After nearly five months with no football it was great to be in action today against an energetic and well organised Hawkinge Town. On a red-hot day the boys put in a good performance showing the benefit of the work that has already happened during pre-season. With holidays restricted this summer it was nice to have a near full squad available with only Macca Murray and Ben Chapman unavailable for this first friendly fixture. We started the game well on the front foot and after a characteristic powerful run from Ben Cardwell his shot was parried by the home goalkeeper and Sam Wilson was on hand to put us in front.
The score remained 1-0 going into half time as a combination of missed chances and some good saves stopped us from adding to our lead. As ever in friendlies there was a number of changes from both sides at the break and the game was more stretched in the second half. The lead was soon doubled after good work from substitute Luke Eldridge saw a Hawkinge defender put in the ball past his own keeper. Further goals came from an Alfie Foster free-kick, a clinical finish from Luke Eldridge and a good header from Sam Wilson from a Jack Penny corner.
Hawkinge continued to work hard throughout and provided tough opponents in what was both team’s first fixture of the 2020/21 season. We would like to thank Scott Porter and all at the club for the warm welcome and wish them all of the best for the rest of the season.
We now move onto two home games this week with Folkestone (Tuesday) and New Romney (Thursday) both visiting the Charles Ground. This will give us the opportunity to give all of the squad good minutes as we continue to prepare for the start of the season. It is very frustrating for us all that we are unable to welcome fans into the ground for these games but we will ensure everybody is fully updated both during and after games and can’t wait to welcome you all back when we are allowed to.
Today was a good start to what will hopefully be a successful season and we are all looking forward to the two fixtures this week.
Come on you Hoops!
Tonkin, Hark (Howard), Alexander (Penny), Foster (Bigginton), Smith, Scott, J Paxman, Munday, Baker (Coyne), Wilson (H Paxman), Cardwell (Eldridge)
