There will always be an affiliation with our closest rivals - Breightmet Wanderers - due to the 'closeness' of some of our new family to that of our old - so when Wayne decided that he'd rather a 'match-situation' to work on a few things rather than making the lads stand around and listen at training, he had an idea. Why not try and get a team to play against so we could do just that? With our Reserves playing their first-ever Open Age game on Moss Park, this would have to be an away fixture - and who do we know with their own pitch that could host it? A couple of quick messages to their Chairman and their Reserve-Team Manager - Marcus and Carl - and it was 'Game On'...

As we arrived - first by a good while we hasten to add - it was clear that the lads preferred to be doing this as well - as they were buzzing. The hosts had rustled up a squad that had some good talent it - with that man that is Lee-Max Crompton in between their sticks, Dillon Hewitt adorning a shirt and our old mate Simon Adams in amongst it to name a few - so we knew that this was never going to be a roll-over. These would make us work and that's exactly what we need at this stage of pre-season. Despite it being mid-July, the rain was threatening to appear all night - and did at times - so the pitch that was freshly cut by our very-own Yatesy had a zip to it. Great! That's what we wanted. The boss warmed his troops up and reminded them that he wanted quick 1/2 touch football out there and he wanted pace and tempo to our game. With the warm-up's complete, it was time to name the starting 11 - and it saw numerous changes to that team that started against Mill Hill St Peters four days ago. Mitch kept his place between the posts and Gatesie came in to partner Keegie in front of him - with Tyler and Rav drafed in at left and right-back respectively. The midfield trio saw Robbie come in to join Alex and Robbo and Ben replaced Yatesy in the striker's role - with Charlie and Lewis either side of him. That meant we had probably our strongest bench ever - with the likes of Jack Holt, Liam, Ste and Nathan (alright - three out of four ain't bad! Love you Mr Bancroft!) to choose from and as the lads huddled, Wayne issued what he had planned tonight for - some set-piece drills that we could only do 'for real'. The lads listened intently and although we all knew they'd only had a couple of minutes looking at them and trying to put them in their mind, the boss urged them to just keep trying. Today's Match Referee - the ever-reliable Mr Phil Newby - called the captains together early and with a sharp blow of his whistle, we were off...

And within 19 seconds, it should have been the team in black and white that took the lead. The ball was fed straight through the heart of their defence and as Ben clipped it in front of him, he was off. Lee-Max came out quickly to narrow the angle and as the United bench waited for the net to bulge, their No.1 made him big and managed to get in the way. A great save really - but Ben will know he needed to tuck that one away. At least we'd started quickly though...

We'd started like we did at the weekend - getting the ball down and spraying it about - and when we do that, it's difficult for any team to cope. The speed of the pass and the movement to get it back makes the game really easy - and with Robbie and Alex tying things up nicely with Robbo, we had the majority of the ball. Gatesie and Callum were marshalling their attack well and we looked to be the team that would get the first goal. And on 6 minutes, we were. Winning the ball in the middle of the park, we fed it into the path of Robbo and as he looked up, he saw Lewis making a run down our left-wing. Leaving our old mate Kieran Worrall in his wake, our winger hit the space - and Robbo duly obliged by laying on a beautiful pass that cut the full-back out. Lew got to it just before it went out for a goal-kick and as he side-stepped the tackle, he smashed his shot from the narrowest of angles past Lee-Max and straight into the opposite top-corner. A class finish and not many keepers in the world would have stopped that. 1-0 and we were looking alright...

Then came our first corner. This is why we were here. The lads drew on their memory - from about 10 minutes ago! - and as they lined up, Wayne was happy. Charlie went to swing it in and at the last moment, he remembered how many hands he had to put up. The ball was played in - and we were inches away from getting it in the back of their net as at least two striped shirts just missed it! That would have been something eh? Scoring from the first one! 'Keep doing it' came the cry from the United coach...

Ben had another opportunity to put us further in front when some great work down the left-wing saw the ball fired in - and with only Lee-Max to beat, our man could only hammer his shot straight at him and the chance was gone. Then came the first chance of note for the hosts as they played some good football in the middle and as they played it forward, it looked as though they had got through too easily - and we had Mitch to thank as he made a great save to keep us in front. Signs that we could not sit here and think this was won already. Not by a long shot...

We then had another corner on the other side from the first and this time it was the skipper Alex Williams that was to take it. Whether the hand went up to signal or not will be a cause for debate - but what we did see was a mirror-image of the first one as the ball flew through the six-yard box just willing a United player to dive at it but not one of us managed to get to it. Two corners we wanted to try and two glorious chances to score from them. We'll be working on these believe...

We made some changes on 22 minutes as Tyler and Rav were swapped for Ste and Jack - with Gatesie going to right-back - and as we kept trying to play football, at times it looked really good. But then we reverted to trying to hit it long and if it wasn't inch-perfect, we were just giving the ball back to the opposition. This in turn slows the game down and that's exactly what our boss doesn't want to happen. It becomes a level playing field then and with players such as Dec Warwick picking out passes, we needed to get back to doing what we know we can do well...

We then saw what can only be described as a moment of madness when a Wanderers player spent a good 30 seconds deciding in his mind what to do next - and then chose to simply swipe Gatesie out from behind when our centre-half was walking off the pitch to retrieve the ball for a throw - and the referee decided that it warranted a yellow card when it could have easily been more harsh than that. Not a thing that the player is know for that's for sure - but naughty all the same. That could have seen the game take a turn for the worse but thankfully it didn't - and both sets of players were working hard out there...

Chances kept coming for us but that pesky Lee-Max was equal to all of them - so with Wayne urging the lads to be more clinical, the first-half came to an end and despite our possession and attractive football at times, this match was definitely not done yet...

Half-time: Breightmet Wanderers 0-1 BREIGHTMET UNITED

As the lads came in for their drinks, there was a feeling that they knew they should have put this game to bed already. We had some good, good chances and overall, we had defended well whilst bossing the midfield battle. We just needed to get back to the 1/2 touches rather than lumping it and whenever we could, we needed to make the pitch as wide as we could. That enables spaces for the full-backs to drive forward - and we know that - so Wayne was questioning his players as to why they were choosing not to do it already? Put things like that right, finish our chances and make sure we kept trying those corners. Two changes were made as Robbie came off so Liam could get a slice of the action and Nathan came on for Gatesie - and the lads were quickly back out there ready to go again...

Rumour had it that Liam had already told Lee-Max that he was in for a 'busy' night - so having come onto the pitch now, he was determined to make sure that happened - and boy did he do that on 49 minutes! We'd won the ball in the central area again and feeding it out wide, it came back in quickly - to see Robbo slip it into the path of Mr Haycock - and he did the rest. From all of 25 yards out, he hit it with the outside of his boot so powerfully that the ball had that 'perfect' curve to it that was going to beat any keeper's effort to stop it. It looked to be going wide - you know, one of them - but curled inside at exactly the right moment to whistle into the back of their net and put us 2-0 to the good! What a strike! Being the guy he is, he simply turned around and came back for the re-start. Love it...

From some reason though we decided to drop off the pace a little now - and that gave the hosts a sniff of a way back. Dillon was causing trouble down their left and he just failed to get on the end of what would have been a great overhead kick on 57 minutes - so we needed to shore up those gaps and keep focused on what needed to be done. Joe was giving us problems down the other flank as well and with their increase in possession, they began coming forward more. We did then see a second yellow - and therefore a red-card - for their player from the first-half but being a 'training' game, we agreed to them bringing another player on to make it 11 v 11 again. In fact we did that twice as they had another player sent off for what looked like dissent - but what's a few cards between mates eh?

Wayne could have been left to rue that decision though - because on 64 minutes, Wanderers managed to claw their way back in it. Once again though, it was us that 'gave' it to them when we played it around at the back and with the ball at his feet, it looked as though Mitch slipped a tad - and that was enough for Wes to get there and snatch it before managing to get it over the line from close-range. We'd had so much chances to be clear but now with the score at 2-1, there was still work to do...

Robbie and Gatesie came back into the fray and as the game wore on, the chances kept coming. We won a free-kick on 73 minutes and from about 22 yards out, there stood Liam looking at Lee-Max again. Their keeper placed his four-man wall slightly to his right and as he awaited the free-kick, so did we all. Up stepped our Liam and as he cracked it, the ball flew past their wall, over Lee-Max's out-stretched hand - but it then crashed against the crossbar and over. The metal is probably still reverberating now with the pace he put on that! So close...

The next real thing of note came with the game in it's final embers - and this time, it was a chance for the hosts to level it at the death. They played the ball out wide and Rav had done well to get back and force it out for a corner. In it came and as the ball bounced around, nobody looked like they wanted to deal with it - apart from Dec Warwick - who could only turn and as he was falling, he couldn't adjust himself quick enough and the ball arrowed over the bar from close-range. That was their chance and thankfully, it was gone...

And that was that. The whistle went for the end of the game and although the score-line wasn't what this was about, we're blinkin' happy we won! Thank you so much to the Wanderers contingent that came out for this and we sincerely wish you the very best for the upcoming season in whatever you do. As for us, it's on to Saturday and the trip to take on Radcliffe Town at Outwood Road. Hopefully we can sustain the quick passing and movement for longer and that will see us create even more chances than tonight. And as for those corners - same again at the weekend chaps!

Better than training that's for sure...

#OnceUnitedNeverDivided