HONOURS EVEN AS SPORTS HELD AT PENTRICH ROAD

SWANWICK PENTRICH RD 2 V HOLBROOK SPORTS 2
PRE SEASON FRIENDLY 28 JULY 7PM AT HIGHFIELD RD

WELCOME TO SWANWICK PENTRICH ROAD FC

A slick goal from Guy Wilding in the last ten minutes of this pre season friendly earned Swanwick Pentrich Rd [SPR] a draw against their step 6 neighbours Holbrook Sports. 
Back to local travelling and its always a nice little village to visit with the chippy in Swanwick missed this time their was though time for a quick pasty from Booths before making the walk down to Highfield Rd for tonight's pre season friendly.
Varying parts of the ground had received a fresh coat of paint and this added to the new season feel, the club have also moved some of their fencing and advert boards from the school side of the ground to the main stand side of the pitch.  Before kick off their was time to catch up with SPR manager Kev Grundy with whom its always a pleasure to share some time.
Before the kick off the blog managed to secure both teams thanks to both managers, hopefully we have the correct names, but as usual caution is offered with players often swapping shirts in the madness of substitutions that occur in friendlies.

THE COVERED ACCOMODATION ST SPR

The ground itself is of basic CMFL standard the immediate entrance is covered by a pitch side car park behind the top goals and this is were the changing rooms, snack bar and toilets are situated. Down the right hand side is a hard standing area and then around the two dug outs are two covered stands the bottom one of which contains 15 tip up seats.  Most of the bottom end is un fenced as now is most of the far side.  The club are hoping to develop a mini pitch behind the bottom goal and have also worked on some pitch drainage too.

BRIGHT NEW NETS ON SHOW AT HIGHFIELD ROAD

So to the game and the first half was generally an average affair with the visitors taking the lead when Stephen Akers swapped the ball from his right foot to fire home with his left this admittedly after SPR hit the woodwork in the opening minutes.

DANNY GRAVES HOLBROOK SPORTS BRIGHT KEEPER

Just before half time Sports keeper Danny Graves, resplendent in pink, pulled off a superb close range save pushing away Baker's shot.
The second half saw lee pop round with a raffle and one lucky lady was the winner hopefully the club benefited a little from this with no admission taken most people seemed happy to contribute to the clubs efforts.

It looked like the game would fizzle out with a Sports win that was until 17 minutes from the end when referee Liam Vayro pointed to the spot to award SPR a penalty and Richard Jefferies equalised with Graves in the visitors goal very close to stopping the effort.  On 80 minutes Ross Coxon returned the advantage to the visitors when he slotted in at the back post.  But SPR were not to be denied and with 8 minutes remaining the goal of the game saw 'Tink' lay through a lovely ball that set up Guy Wilding for a quality finish past the out coming Graves in the Sports goal.

So all square at the 90 minute mark and a steady work out for both sides who will look to develop their team plans as the new season approaches with speed.
Impressive performance form Holbrook's keeper Graves and SPR substitute Ashley Buxton who always adds some fire and class to the home sides performance.

A GATHERING OF SWANWICK PENTRICH RD SUBSTITUTES