The football season has finally woken up after its long slumber, and as a precursor to the more competitive fare to follow, Guildford visited Kiln Brow on Saturday to face Redhill in a friendly.
City manager Paul Barnes is now three months into the job, but this was the first opportunity for him to see his players in action. With FA Vase involvement next Saturday this was an important opportunity to run the rule over the players eligible to play, including several members of the U18 set up. Partly for this reason City fielded different teams in each half of the match.
The first half was an even affair with City leading at the break after a 28th minute goal from Mike Coppinger, following good work from Eli Ogunseye. Within 15 minutes of the restart Guildford found themselves 3-1 down. The first within minutes took a couple of deflections past the unfortunate Mike McEntegart. On 56 and 60 minutes City’s defence was caught napping allowing the home side to score twice on the break, and truth be told there were also other similar chances for Redhill. City felt that might have had a penalty when Max Oldham went to ground but it wasn’t to be, and Paul Barnes will have left Kiln Brow pleased that football has returned, but also with the knowledge gleaned from watching his playing squad in action.
First-half: Stuart Norman, Anselme Daho, David Burton, Fred Hill, Josh Everard, Jamie Higgins, Harvey Kirk, Mike Coppinger, Eli Ogunseye, Andre Smith, Ruairi Byrne.
Second-half: Mike McEntegart, Sean Mason, Liam Maher (Stephane Zolo 75), Isy Nzelo, Kieran Williams (Harry Nicholas 71), Merrick James-Lewis, Theo Woodhouse, Nathan Laleye, Ryan Ferrari, Cyril Ocansey, Max Oldham.
Below are collection of photos by club photographer Paul Burgman.
