Pre-Season Training - Part 2 (GAME TIME)

The pre-season training slog continues, but this week the Llantwit Fardre FC reserves squad were ‘treated’ to a friendly game against a team from the Rhondda valley called ‘AFC Hibs’.

You’d hope the first pre-season friendly of the season, and my first game since 2007, could be a tender easy-going affair. Perhaps on a neat small pitch against old fat blokes while a group of cheerleaders sing your name from the sidelines.

It turned out a bit different to that though. 

Firstly, the match was to be played on sandy astro turf, the kind that gives you a skin burn if you happen to fall down or slide about. The kind of surface so hard the ball bounces at least double the height it does on grass.  

Then, the football fate gods and ‘Derrick the Weather Man’ decided to send down the hottest most punishing sun of the year for us (cheers lads). 

An embarrassing lack of logistical pre match preparation and coaching came and went and it was on to the game. With no warm up or tactical instructions our philosophy was loosely based around hoping for the best. 

We did have a kit though, which had to go down as a bonus.

I’d been asked to start the game from the bench, but was assured that I’d get on at some point in a midfield role or along the back line. Given that my days of chasing long balls as a striker were over, I breathed a sigh of relief that my legs had been sparred all the running.  

Twenty minutes in and our striker asked to come off as he needed a leg transplant and before you could blink I was brought on to replace him… as a striker.

Pre game I’d predicted I was carrying approx 45 minutes worth of running in my tank but now I would have to give 70 in a position that demands running. A lot of running. Sometimes for pointless reasons. In the sun. With blisters on my feet. For the first time since 2007. 

I was fed to wolves.

Llantwit started well and we went in 3-1 up at half time, playing some neat football. The second half appeared a step too far though and with a lack of coaching from the sidelines and a flurry of unsettling substitutions, the lead was let slip. 

To be fair, AFC Hibs had played several friendlies leading up to the game and fizzed the ball around us with gusto. The show offs even appeared to all know each others names, which was a cunning tactic our squad could take note from for future games.  

The game ended 3-5 with the majority of the players on the pitch begging the ref for the final whistle for relief from the sun. In fact, at one point, the ref did ask me politely to stop asking him how much time was remaining.    

So, lots of work to be done but getting the Llantwit Fardre FC shirt back on and linking up with old friends was special.  

More to follow.