PSF Round Up – Saturday 1st August

It has been a long wait but finally our Clubs were allowed to take back to the field on Saturday as the pre-season games kicked off, albeit behind closed doors.

With no spectators allowed most of us were glued to Social Media for updates, looking for starting line-ups and looking for scores.

Fortunately most sides communicated what was happening really well, and from that we can provide a round-up of events from the day.

Pre-Season Results – Saturday 1st August

Bridon Ropes 4-1 SE Athletic

Erith Town 1-4 Croydon

Fisher 1-0 Basildon United

Greenways 2-4 Farnborough OBG

Halls AFC 1-3 Sutton Athletic

Ide Hill 0-4 Snodland Town

Maidstone u23s 2-2 Kent Football Utd

Punjab United 1-2 Holmesdale

Tower Hamlets 3-2 Phoenix Sports

Redhill 2-0 Crowborough Ath

Rochester Utd 0-9 Chatham Town

Rusthall 1-4 Faversham Town

Virginia Waters 0-1 Balham

Welling Town 1-2 Concord Rangers

All eyes were on the Chatham Town starting line-up for their game at Rochester United and we were not let down when Manager Scott Lindsey named all of his newly-signed attacking threats together for the first time – leaving little doubt what was about to happen. The Spartans were quickly caught in the headlights with Dan Bradshaw, Andy Pugh and Ryan Hayes all delivering in a high-scoring first half while Jack Evans reminded those who needed it that he is still the alpha-male around the Bauvill with a couple of goals for himself. It ended up in a 9-0 win for The Chats and they now go on to a tougher test against Cray Valley, while Rochester sack their matchmaker then quickly prepare themselves for the visit of Guru Nanak on Wednesday.

Welling Town hosted a Concord Rangers side that would have probably expected an easier afternoon than what they got. The National League South side nicked a narrow win but the Boots got the plaudits, with Ryan Golding scoring on his return to the Club.

Croydon really fancy themselves for a promotion push this season and have put in place a tough pre-season campaign to get them ready for it. First-up was Erith Town but thanks to doubles from Andy Somo and Kieran Dias the Trams passed the test with flying colours picking up a 4-1 victory and a bit more attention in the process.

The SCEFL welcomed two new sides to its fold this week and both were in action today, with each getting positive results. Tower Hamlets had a strong second half to beat landlords Phoenix Sports 3-2 while Balham returned from Virginia Waters as narrow victors.

Rusthall hosted a very strong and very familiar looking Faversham Town squad. Harry Harding and Michael Hagan netted for the visitors while our favourite pre-season player A Triallist scored the single goal for the Rustics in a 4-1 loss.

In other results, Nathan Palmer and Max Ash gave Holmesdale a 2-1 win in an all-SCEFL clash at Punjab United, Javlon Campbell scored a brace for Kent Football Utd in a draw against a young Maidstone United side, George Maddocks got among the goals in a 4-1 victory for Bridon Ropes at home to SE Athletic and Rob Jeffrey’s returned after a year out injured in a 4-2 loss for Greenways against Farnborough Old Boys Guild.

Elsewhere, Snodland Town looked good in a 4-0 win at Ide Hill, Sutton Athletic picked up a 3-1 win at Halls AFC and Fisher shook off the cobwebs in a 1-0 victory over Basildon United, with Jacob Katonia getting the goal.

The next set of friendlies gets under way on Tuesday evening.