Pre Season Success 1

At last I've seen them in action. A full 83 days since I last saw the Green and White Gladiators (I wasn't at Kingsmeadow for the London Senior Cup triumph) I saw them take to the field again, this time at Hillingdon Borough FC against Bracknell Town. I don't often take in more than 2 or 3 pre season games, I often find them turgid, dull affairs full of players that really don't belong at the salubrious surroundings the Ryman League Premier Division offers. Fortunately, in Gary McCann's time as boss these appearances by poor Ali Dia types are much a less regular occurance. Hence, having seen the line-ups for the first two friendlies I was tempted to take in Hillingdon's 4 team charity tournament on Friday evening and Saturday lunchtime. And I'm pleased I did.

So, the tournament had been organised by Hillingdon with proceeds going to Michael Sobell House, a cancer care centre at nearby Mount Vernon Hospital. For £5 I got 4 matches of 60 minutes, a very warm welcome and probably the best burger of the entire season already (although the burger did come for an extra charge). Great value. The Greens kicked things off against a Bracknell Town side under new management for the new season after narrowly avoiding relegation from the Southern League South & West Division last time around. To be honest, it was men against boys. Although the Bracknell side worked hard, the Greens looked by far the more cohesive side and comfortably won 6-0. Kevin Maclaren, Harry Hunt and Marc Leach scored before half time, Hunt, James Bent and Glenn Garner added quite a bit of gloss to the scoreline after the break to move into the final with ease.

The side included a couple of new faces from last season. Melvin Baptiste - a young defender from Uxbridge and Ricky Campbell - a young midfielder who google suggests could have been with Leyton Orient and Cambridge City last season started whilst former Harrow and Wimbledon defender Aaron Silcott and Andreas Pilides who was with Welwyn Garden City last season both came on from the bench. Early signs are that Campbell has a bit about him whilst Baptiste showed enough to suggest he could be worth persevering with. Other players who appeared having made appearances for the club previously included the mecurial Wayne O'Sullivan, midfielder Dave Diedhiou (who I thought was our most impressive midfielder early last season) and goalkeeper Berkley Lawrencin. The latter, having made a dozen or so appearances early last season spent a long while getting games at Wembley. It's immediately clear that doing so has done wonders for his game. He looks 100% more confident than he did last season and has really grown in stature. Will Viner, who played yesterday for Barnet against Arsenal, may not be missed as much as some think.

Second game up, and playing for the opportunity to play against Hendon in the final were Slough Town, now managed by former Hendonite Steve Bateman and Steve Hale's Hillingdon Borough. Slough, after a number of years of struggle finally seem to be coming out of the doldrums. It was announced just 10 days ago that Slough Council have finally given approval for plans that could lead to the football club returning to the town after many years ground sharing at Windsor & Eton and Beaconsfield SYCOB. Slough are a proper Non League football club with lots of friends around the circuit. Although there is still a long way to go, this is a set of fans that deserve some good news at last. I personally really hope that they are able to be back in Slough by 2012, the anticipated completion date for this community project. On the pitch, Hillingdon put in an impressive performance, particularly in the 2nd half where only a fine performance from 15 year old Jemal De Richmond and a goal line clearance kept the scores level. Almost predictably, having failed to take any of those chances the hosts were suckered from a late corner - headed home emphatically by defender turned midfielder Dean Harper. Perhaps against the run of play, it mattered little as the final became a battle of the homeless. Everyone would reconvene some 14 hours or so later to decide the destination of the trophy.