Mayford Athletic Oaks 2 Guildford Saints 1

In Kevin's absence this weekend Chris Mattock stepped into the breech for this hastily arranged friendly. This was his view on the match;

"First pre-season defeat for the Saints! After a tough warm-up and a tactical team talk from the stand in manager, the boys had their own meeting and decided how they would actually play!! Missing Martin and Ben at the back, Matt and Joe R slipped comfortably into the role of centre backs and the team soon settled down with Alex going close from range early on but with Saints missing a couple of half chances, some sloppy defending from a Mayford corner allowed the home team to take the lead.

Good defending, particularly from Matt and Christian, absorbed some further Mayford pressure. And then from a long free kick Matt found Seb who sent the ever chasing Tom Richards on a run down the right - he superbly crossed for Julian to coolly slot away the equaliser.

In an open end to end game both teams had chances with Josh in goal making a couple of fine saves, with one brilliant tip over the bar from a free kick. Mike and Ollie came on as subs replacing an impressive and attacking Christian and Conor. The midfield, especially Mike D battled hard, but created little for Tom upfront.

Half time came and the stand in manager decided to change things around with Julian injured, he pushed Ross and Jo forward... but this unfortunately backfired, with ten man Mayford drilling a chance home, giving Josh no chance! Having re organised AGAIN(!), Jamie - on his birthday - working well with Seb, flashed a shot just past the post. From a corner Mike had a bullet header cruelly blocked on the line and despite five last minutes of frantic pressure, Saints failed to find the equaliser.

A 2 - 1 loss, with the stand in boss making some odd tactical changes; but overall a good warm up for the season proper which starts next weekend."

Man of the Match - Christian Shaw

"P.S. The boys will look forward to the return of Kevin Jose Mourinho next week."