ALL SQUARE AT THE OVAL

Town kicked off their warm-up fixtures by sharing six goals with local
rivals Greenbacks at the Oval on Tuesday evening.

It was a typical pre-season affair, with both sides still feeling their way towards the new campaign and consequently was punctuated by a number of individual player errors.

The first half of the game was competitive - at times even contradicting its 'friendly' billing, and whilst Valley probably just edged the 45 minutes in terms of possession, they found themselves a goal down at the break after they failed to defend a free-kick properly and allowed Lee Greenway to sneak a header past Farhad Afandiyev.

Town had threatened to get behind the home defence a number of times, but the combination of a vigilant linesman and a lack of concentration from front line players David Stone, Akinwale Aladetoun and David Kolodynski meant they were all too often stopped in their tracks.

Bedworth emerged for the second period with a totally different eleven, and they extended their lead on 54 minutes when Martin Palmer found himself in space behind the Valley defence and applied a simple finish.

After this further blow, Town bounced back with their best spell of the match - pinning their opponents in their own half for most of it, whilst playing some neat, attractive passing football.

This twenty minute comeback period also brought them their three goals, with David Kolodynski finishing off Scott Musgrove's mis-hit shot on 62 minutes, Tristan Kabongo tapping home after Stone had broke through the United defence on 68 minutes, and then Stefan McGrath giving them the lead two minutes later after a good cross from Kolodynski.

The lead was short-lived however, when hesitant defending from Brad Harris allowed Bedworth to break, and from the resulting cross a diving Andy Commander header flew past his own keeper and into the back of the net.

Rugby's best chance thereafter saw a shot from Kolodynski fly just over after he had cut inside from the wing, and another long range effort from Stefan Morley was well-saved by the Greenbacks' keeper.

Valley boss Billy Jeffrey gave a full match to midfielder Musgrove - who was at Stamford last season - and ex-Kettering full-back Stefan Morley, and both players impressed on their first appearance for the club.

There were also run-outs from the bench for triallists Kabongo, McGrath and Boakya Agyeman. In addition to his goal, Kabongo - who was on the books at Hinckley for a spell last season - looked lively after his introduction. McGrath is a product of the Nuneaton Borough youth system and Agyeman spent time at Kettering in 2006-07.

Harris, Mark Edge and Joel Young from last season's youth and reserve teams also featured.

Valley Lineup: Faz Afandiyev, Brad Harris, Stefan Morley, Andy Commander, Delroy Gordon (Boakya Agyeman), David Kolodynski, Mark Edge (Stefan McGrath), Tom Breward, Akin Aladetoun (Tristan Kabongo), David Stone (Joel Young), Scott Musgrove. Bookings: None. Sent Off: None.

Report by Jon Venner.