We were already 1-0 up at that point - midway through the half Craig O’Connor was slipped through by Juke Box and knocked it in from just inside the box. We put in a very good second half performance. It was nice to beat another Premiership reserve side (that’s two this season, after our 1-0 win over Fulham) but that’s not what it’s all about with friendlies. It’s about seeing your players perform and do well, and my players performed and did well.
Which made defeat at Dartford four days later all the more difficult to understand. We went to their beautiful new ground and played some scintillating football for about 25 minutes. Jamie Cade scored, Paul Kennett scored, and when we were 2-1 up it only looked like there was going to be one winner. But we took the opposition too lightly, and they got two back, and ended up 3-2 winners. All their goals came from set pieces - two free-kicks and a corner. The first was scored by Junior Kadi, who’s had a couple of spells with us, of course. He curled a beauty into the top left-hand corner. The others came from sloppy defending, especially their winner, a knock in after a fumble from the keeper.
As I say, friendlies are all about what you can learn from them and this one gave us a kick up the arse. It was a real wake-up call and showed us that it’s all very well raising our game against the Fulhams and the West Hams of this world, but we’ve got to raise it against lower-ranked opposition, too. We’ve got a chance to do that on Friday, when we face County League Pease Pottage at the Dripping Pan. After that it’s the real thing.

Friendly v Pease Pottage Friday 3rd August 7.45pm (free entry)