Regent see off Melford

Brightlingsea Regent travelled over to Suffolk to face Long Melford in their annual friendly on Friday evening with an indifferent July climate.

Regent started the match very spritely, creating plenty of chances early on, it took just six minutes for one of Austin’s seven featuring trialists to strike at goal, but trialist (B)’s effort forced a comfortable save.

After a series of pressure and plenty of supply into the box, Regent finally had the breakthrough. A lovely move out of defence saw Jordan Barnett pick out Trialist (C) to turn and play a neat outside of the foot pass to get Max Booth free on the right side, bursting into the box, Booth slotted his low strike low past the Long Melford keeper. 0-1

The R’s had their tails up from this point, and could have soon doubled their lead. This time Booth got Zack Smith-Walter sprinting down the right on the overlap, delivering a beautifully weighted cross which picked out the head of Cadell Fraser-Robinson, but his effort went agonisingly over the bar from eight yards!

The first half came to an end, with Manager Austin switching his whole eleven for the restart.

The second half was played at an extremely fast tempo, with this eleven certainly creating a lot more chances.

Four minutes in, Jake Thompson headed just over and James Crisell moments later shot wide.

Crisell who was putting in a decent shift and was close to doubling the lead, only to be ruled out by the far side assistant. A delicious left sided cross got to the back post where Crisell was on hand to stab home, but his run was a little too early.

Ten minutes later, Regent got the opportunity to double their lead from the spot. Crisell was on hand to pick out a fantastic run from Jack Mahon on the right to cut back a low cross into Charlie Durling who was upended by the Long Melford defended just before he was able to strike. Trialist (F) duly dispatched from the spot. 0-2

Long Melford were handed a way back into the game with fifteen minutes to play, a miss control from a young Trialist goalkeeper, who had replaced Turner on the hour, let the Long Melford striker steal possession and tap into an empty net! 1-2

In the last ten minutes of the match, Trialist (F) looked to double his tally on two separate occasions. His first effort force a terrific save as his strike looked destined for the top corner and later, another strike whistled past the post! FT 1-2

Another excellent work out for Regent, the R’s created a lot of chances and the build up play was a joy to watch in both halves. On the night, we just needed to be a bit more clinical in front of goal. Next up we host Witham Town on Tuesday evening.

1st Half Team: Turner, Smith-Walter, Trialist (A), Barnett, Bennett, Ribchester (C), McDonald, Booth, Trialist (B), Fraser-Robinson, Trialist (C)

2nd Half Team: Turner (Trialist G) 60’, Mahon, Trialist (D), Heron, Thompson, Crisell (C), Durling, Byrne-Hewitt, Trialist (E), Trialist (F), Oti