Chatham Town travelled to Herne Bay for their first pre-season friendly of the summer, and walked away from the Safety Net Stadium, Winch's Field 3-1 winners.
I was unable to attend due to a much more important family event, and I'm not usually a massive fan of pre-season matches anyway. I am though keen to see our new charges, but a glimpse at Herne Bay's official site already has some match photos on board.
According to their report, two of our three goals came from defensive lapses by Bay, but we have a pedigree of not capitalising on such things, so perhaps the new era is starting as it means to go on.
I mentioned photos - two of them are captioned, so we now know what Aaron Firth and skipper Danny Ward look like. We also rather comically now know what Jimmy Corbett looks like these days. Those of us with long memories will remember the Medway lad being a £525k signing for then Premier League big shots Blackburn Rovers back in 1998. He broke a leg soon after joining Rovers, and disappeared into the ether - his five years without an appearance at Blackburn were dotted with loans to Southend and Darlington. Anyway, apparently he's approaching full fitness. Maybe the picture on the Bay site isn't all that flattering, but I reckon he garnered a liking for meat and potato pies whilst in Lancashire.
http://hernebayfc.net/Herne%20Bay%20v%20Chatham%20Town.html
Sniping at megastars aside, its back to the reality of non-league footy next week. I don't like PSFs normally, as I mentioned. They only usually end in the disappointment of seeing a really good triallist that we can't afford, or the desperate sight of players on their way out of a club falling by the wayside. You just can't match a competitive game. But this Tuesday sees a first chance for fans and the intrigued alike to see the VCD side that finished 8th in the Ryman North last year under the re branded guise of Chatham Town FC. That sounds like I'm being a bit sarcy. I am. Genuinely, I welcome the new regime. The club's needed a good kick up the arse for a long time now, and we thought we were getting it last year. The impression that AOB was forced out by bad feeling in the dressing room / a lack of consistency / the club becoming an old boys network for ex Dartford players (to the point where Darts fans started coming to watch us when they had a chance) became all the stronger when you realise just how few players were an option to remain, and all of them were pre-OB - that is were at the club before O'Brien, or came through the youth ranks. The fact that there were only 8, and we used in excess of 25 players last year tells you how bad it was. Foley has brought with him a proven side who play for each other. We need a team like that - they've already bonded. I'd love to see Matt Solly fit in with it, and for that matter Brad Potter. Turns out that Ben Payne, Ashley Probets and Rob Denness will probably all leave. What happens with Richard Avery is yet to be seen. The youth wing of Michael Scott and Ryan Restell have a future at the club. Roll on Tuesday, 7.45pm - the visit of Essex Senior League champions Stansted, a side who should have gone up to our level but chose not to. I'm looking forward to the horror of trying to learn all of our new players names - as any of you who know me will testify, every game is spent waiting for me to confuse a player's name. Should be fun.
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