Cogonhoe Friendly?

[ewstute]

Did anyone go? How did the team play?
Saw they lost.

Who played? Any trialists good?

[stevep]

Match report from Club website

Brian Page took a large squad that included numerous trialists and Under 21 Squad players to Northamptonshire last night for the first game of pre-season. New signings Tom McGowan and the returning Lee Smith were on show whilst Denzel Gerrar, Jordan Nicholson, George Root and Max York were not involved.



The game was played on the 3G at Manor School after United had to switch venues from their own Compton Park ground as the pitch there was deemed not yet ready for play.

The starting XI had a familiar look about it with goalkeeper Brendan Brown and midfielder Dovydas Kairys the only players perhaps unfamiliar to Histon supporters and Brown showed his ability with a number of decent stops over the 90 minutes. Salim Relizani caught the eye with some strong, direct and pacey runs down the right hand side whilst Tom McGowan slotted in alongside Rogan McGeorge in midfield and Lee Smith spearheaded the attack.

The hosts went ahead on 20 minutes though when Taylor Orosz arrowed a shot across Brown into the far corner of the net. With the half nearing an end Relizani, Smith and Sam Ives all went close to levelling the scores.

Page changed the entire outfield 10 on 55 minutes with a number of trialists being given their chance to show what they could do alongside our own Under 21’s Ryan Baxter, Elkanah Sibanda, Luca Dusi and Aysa Ourtilbour whilst taking the skippers’ armband from Lee Smith was the very welcome sight of Jack Uttridge taking to the pitch for the last half an hour, the defender returning from a two year stint at Brentford that was very much hampered by injury.

The young side battled to make headway against the hosts but Luke Emery doubled United’s lead with 15 minutes to go before a penalty 5 minutes later ended the scoring.

Pre-season as they say is all about fitness and team bonding and to this effect is was a good work out for Page’s squad and some competitive minutes under the belt for some of the players. No doubt the Gaffer would have liked to have won the game but it was clearly not his top priority on the night. “It was great to get the group together although quite a few of the squad are still away on holiday at the moment. For the others to get good minutes in was a real positive though. Newcomers Lee Smith and Tom McGowan I thought looked really sharp and I was very happy with the levels of performance from everybody. We will look to up the minutes for the signed players as we go into the Saffron Walden game on Saturday, and look to be at near enough full fitness for the Bedford game on Saturday 18th when we should have I hope, near enough the full squad available.”

Histon: Brendan Brown, Miles Smith, Ashley White, Evan Key, Danny Rumens, Tom McGowan, Salim Relizani, Rogan McGeorge, Lee Smith ©, Sam Ives, Dovydas Kairys.

Subs used: Ryan Baxter, Elkanah Sibanda, Aysa Ourtilbour, Luca Dusi, Jack Uttridge, Matt Meacher and various trialists.