Towns Reserve Team made the short journey to Whitchurch to play their hosts, Ludwig Leisure, for the last pre season game prior to the league opening game against AFC Wimbledon this coming Saturday at the Camrose. Again there was a proportion of promising youth team players in the ranks making the average age of the squad 19.

The pitch, whilst bumpy, on a slope and with long grass, was large and allowed the expansive passing game that Dom and Steve are trying to encourage amongst their charges. The early exchanges were robust and Town settled the more quickly and pressed high up the pitch onto Ludwig’s defence forcing them to play the long ball out. The pressure told and Town took the lead on 26 minutes. From there Town eased off and allowed Ludwig back into the game and from a long free kick a touch by a forward put Ludwig back in the game 1 – 1 on 29 minutes. This spurred Town back into their neat one and two touch passing and on the stroke of half time Town again took the lead with a three man move.  

Changes made by both sides disrupted the flow of the game at the start of the second half but on 58 minutes Town again put together some good passing moves to increase their lead further and again on 60 minutes to effectively take control of the game. Further positional changes gave Dom and Steve the chance to assess different combinations of players and whilst Ludwig battled valliantly with a rearguard action a further two goals on 83 and 88 minutes saw Town run out worthy 6 – 1 winners.  

After the game Dom commented ‘ It was nice to see the lads play with confidence against a physical team and convert their solid defence and good approach play with six well taken goals’  

Town Reserves league opener is against AFC Wimbledon at the Camrose this Saturday KO 3:00 pm. Please make the effort to come and support your local players if not travelling to the first team game.