Town held to draw by Billinghay in pre-season opener

It was a typical opening pre-season performance from both sides, who found the heat and humidity a real challenge, which restricted both sides from playing with any tempo in their game. Town were without many of the first team regulars who were unavailable but supplemented that by bringing in several reserve players who will be pushing for a place in the 1st team squad this coming season.

The first half saw Town control the majority of the possession, however link up play between the Town midfield and forwards often seemed disjointed. The best chance of the half fell to new signing Tom Sewell who's close range effort appeared to be saved by the hands of an outfield player who closed down the Town forward, however to the amazement of the Town players, nothing was given.

As expected tired legs played a major part in the second 45 minutes where on an already wide pitch, the game became stretched and more gaps began to appear. It was Town who took the lead 10 minutes into the second half when Nathan Rawdon caught the Billinghay keeper out, scoring direct from a corner, sneaking the ball inside the front post. The home side equalised with 15 to go with a nice move which came down the left handside. The ball was squared to the unmarked Billinghay player arriving on cue from the right wing and placed the ball past Wood from six yards out. The game finished one goal a piece, but Town could feel they deserved the win for creating more chances then their opposition did. However, it was a real test in difficult conditions and should give manager Paul Johnson more of an indicator of where his squad is at with five weeks until the opening game of the Lincolnshire league season.

Next week see's Town face their biggest test of pre-season with a trip to Harrowby United who were last season promoted to the premier division of the United Counties League. Kick off is 3:00pm at the Environcom Stadium.

Team: Burchnall (Wood), Shinn, J.Blondel, Marshall, Rawdon (Low), L.Blondel, O.Johnson, Baxter (Lamming), Swift, Sewell, Edwards.