Pre Season Friendly, Tuesday 23rd July
My final pre season outing prior to me flying out of the country until after the season begins saw me over at New Lodge for a contest between Isthmian Premier Billericay Town & Isthmian North side Witham Town as both teams worked their way towards the August 10th starting date for the league campaign.
The Blues will be hoping to improve on last season sixth placed finish where they just missed out on the end of season playoffs by just three points by at least reaching those this time around and gaining promotion to the next level, Witham themselves will hope they can improve on their 14th placed finish in the North Division although they were never really in a relegation scrap like previous seasons so this in itself was a positive to take from it.
They were only five points off a top ten finish too so a much improved campaign compared to previous ones, so that would be an aim for this season no doubt, to try and break into those top ten positions, for Billericay it was time to try and bounce back into the Vanarama South after a couple of seasons where they had been on a slide of sorts, so this was again an important season for them.
The first half of this contest saw Witham have the majority of the better chances that occurred, Callum Fitzer & Joshua Osude were causing the hosts defence plenty of problems roared on by a noisy visiting support behind the goal led by the superb James Beardwell of course, he really is a breath of fresh air for non league football, so well done to him. They and the small gathering of home fans who gathered behind same goal with their drum certainly made it a good atmosphere.
Sadly for James and his side though, it was Billericay who led at the break courtesy of a 13th minute strike from new signing Decarrey Sheriff who was making his first appearance after joining from Eastbourne Borough and he netted on debut after a lovely run from a Trialist down the left, his cut back found Moses Emmanuel who then played it to Sheriff who provided a neat finish with his left foot into the bottom corner.
The home side hadn't been at their best in the first period but they certainly improved after the break and seven minutes after the restart doubled their lead when the visiting keeper flattened hosts defender Tom Bender inside the box after both challenged for a high looping ball, and Emmanuel turned scorer this time by firing home the spot kick, although the keeper almost made amends by saving it, but could only help the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
The hosts then changed pretty much their entire starting eleven just past the hour mark as more players got minutes, Witham also made some changes as well as the game continued on, this is what pre season is all about, trying out players or giving players minutes to get their fitness up to scratch, it was certainly a good workout for both and more information gathered for both sets of management as they continue their build up to the new season.
Full time Billericay Town 2 Witham Town 0
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