The weather certainly hasn’t been akin to pre-season football in July. Games called off midweek with waterlogged pitches are absolutely unheard of and considering how much rain we saw last season now is not the time surely.
For some, games kicked off as soon as the calendar turned July given the 27th sees the start of competitive matches for Step 5 clubs across the country.
This time of year seems a furious battle at times as clubs hope everything has been achieved in the last nine weeks to be ready to go again. Managers still wanting to get players signed and likewise some of them not yet settled where they want to be.
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I tend to pick pre-season games with a pinch of salt. Results mean nothing, just tactical tinkering to prepare for the new season and getting minutes into players along with understanding.
I did however get to games both on Saturday and Sunday although that’s a rare occurrence, a light hearted testimonial the second of the two games. First up was staying locally at East Preston as they hosted AFC Croydon Athletic.
A tough year for EP last time out, staying up on the final day of the season managed by one of the ex-joint bosses from the opposition Kevin Raynor. The visitors achieved a remarkable promotion last year and will head back to Sussex on numerous occasions in 2024-25.
Sitting 17th when Raynor and Lee Roots were sacked after a slow start, in came Jermain McGlashan and they inched their way up the table making the play-off positions in the final week and going all the way to head for Step 4 this coming campaign for the first time in their history.
The weather, well a mixture of sunshine, showers and wind completed the 90 minutes. A good sized crowd was in under the pretence of a possible sighting from Croydon’s celebrity owners Stormzy and Wilfred Zaha, the latter however already starting pre-season in Turkey and the former missing in action shall we say.
The two division gap was evident across both halves, the visitors storming into a 5-0 half time lead and adding just a single strike to the final scoreline. EP certainly won’t come up against this level of performance week in week out once the season begins, having faced Step 5 opposition the Tuesday before.
Good tests so far and their schedule pretty much has them facing more tough games before the action kicks off in around four weeks’ time.
Great to catch up with Jermaine before kick-off, he joined us on our Premier Non League Podcast season finale back in May to talk through their season and promotion.
Unsurprisingly, their success meant interest in a few of their players but he’s hopeful most will remain at the club with one having left and already returned in the shape of Michael Phillips.
As mentioned Sunday was a slow paced testimonial that had been in the calendar for a few weeks and tickets already secured. Pat McManus had completed 534 games in charge of Brockenhurst FC by the end of last season in the Wessex League over an 11 year span.
They missed out on the new Step 5 play-off’s by a single place, surrounded by clubs with bigger budgets. I made a first visit to see them draw 0-0 with Shaftesbury who went on to win the play-off’s and like Croydon move up for the first time in club history.
Ironically, Pat called time on his career in charge of the Badgers and is now joint-boss at Shaftesbury for the coming campaign. Testimonials are hard to come by these days, people don’t stay long enough at one club be that staff or players.
An added draw to this one was Harry Redknapp taking charge of the Badgers as the two sides lined up consisting of a number of players Pat had managed taking on a side of Legends including a few who had played on Pat’s teams or against his sides.
Featuring for the opposition were Brett Pitman, the ex-Bournemouth striker who has plundered over 100 goals at Wessex level in the last two years. Despite winning promotion with Shaftesbury he’s opted to remain at Step 5 and signed for Baffins Milton Rovers.
The ex-Arsenal keeper and current Eastleigh goalkeeping coach Vince Bartrum kept out a McManus penalty, his son Heath making a substitute appearance for Pat’s side, family connections in both nets.
Once again the weather swopped between the sun and cloudy intervals but no rain, the Legends side ran out 6-2 winners in front of a decent attendance and hopefully a few quid made for Pat during the afternoon too.
In a way it is nice to take in these games, nothing riding on them for the spectators but a bit of football to watch given how poor a lot of the football has been in the summer Euros.
With staggered start dates for leagues from the end of July into the middle of August there is plenty of time to get round some new grounds and teams and cross a few off the list before all the action gets underway.
