Presteigne St Andrews’ first-team manager Barry Williams felt there were plenty of positives to take from the first-half showing during the home match against Lads Club on Saturday 7 August.
While the Llanandras Park club eventually went down 5-3, Barry points to the raft of changes he made during the second half as being a major factor in their surrendering a 3-1 half-time lead.
“It wasn’t too bad a game and we played really well in the first half,” he said.
“We went in 3-1 up courtesy of goals from Tony Richards, an own goal and then one from Ioan Hughes.
“In the second half they put a lot of pressure on us and scored twice in the first 15 minutes but it certainly didnt help us when we lost Spencer [Napolitano] at half time and Max [Powell] early in the second half as both complained of tight hamstrings.
“With it being a pre-season friendly Danny Ives was spared a red card but he was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes.
“The score remained at 3-3 until last 10 minutes or so when they scored twice to make it 3-5,” he added.
Barry points to the fact he was again without around half-a-dozen players for a variety of reasons and – with two warm-up matches remaining – he is planning on selecting his sides accordingly.
“We are due to take on Clee Hill in the Ludlow Hospital Cup on Tuesday night [10 August] but we will be taking a mixed team to Ludlow for that one,” he said.
“It is not worth risking any of the lads who picked up knocks so it will be a chance for the others to show us what they got.
“Hopefully Max, Spencer, Connor Bird, Tom Watkins, Jack Bowen, John Bird and Tony Richards should all be available for Thursday night’s home game against Bromyard Town which is our last one before the season starts.”