It can't be often that the kick-off for a pre-season friendly against a local non-league side is held up because of traffic problems, but the match last night started late at 8. About 1,200 attendance! Rovers: 1st half: Cronin,Brown,Anthony,Clough,Hughton(Chris Hughton's son),Reece,Stanley,Lines,Reggie Lambe,McGleish,Zebroski 2nd half: Cronin,Smith,Anthony,Virgo,Sawyer,Brown,Gill,Campbell,Swallow,Kuffour,Richards. Comfortable win in the end. The second half team played with more cohesion...but they knew one another! Campbell helped with the warm-up for the first half.Good to see 'Uncle Albert' there. McGleish creaked like an old Morris Minor in warm-up but showed class and timing once the game started. Mangotsfield tired in the second half; Swallow took his goals well. Interesting to see Lambe there, and the right back Hughton looked good. Bevan,Carayol and Harrold didn't play, and I think Anyinsah was watching.
Bath City will be a good test, because the signs weren't particularly encouraging when we played them in pre season last year. It was good to see some of the youngsters giving Buckle something to think about. It would be good to see Reggie Lambe on board, although Buckle may already ahve all the wide/ attacking players he needs.
