Frenford 0 Hornchurch 3

Pre Season Friendly, Tuesday July 13th

My third pre season of 2021/22 saw me over at The Drive for Frenford's home fixture against FA Trophy holders Hornchurch, the hosts play three levels below their opponents so this would certainly prove a thorough test for the Ilford/Redbridge side, although this was The Urchins first pre season fixture so Frenford, who were a week or two into their programme, could see this as a slight favour towards them.

Despite this though the visitors were expected to record a comfortable victory, there last competitive fixture was of course at Wembley when they defeated Hereford to win the FA Trophy, an incredible achievement indeed and one they wanted to back up with a strong season in this time round as well, so how would their first match prior to the new season shape up.

The opening half hour saw Hornchurch have a lot of the ball unsurprisingly but they were made to work very hard by the hosts who themselves had a couple of moments going forward themselves, but just past the half hour The Urchins did make the break though when after Ruff had seen his long range effort deflected against the bar, Nash followed in and somehow headed his effort against the bar too, but Stimson was on hand to nod over the line from close range, a scrappy goal in the end but a goal it was a the visitors, who looked a bit frustrated up till that point, could release some of this.

Frenford were competing well against their Isthmian Premier opponents though and would have been very happy at the break, whereas Hornchurch would have wanted a tad more from themselves although this was their first pre season outing so understandably were getting some rust out of their system, but nine minutes after the break a bit of class doubled the Urchins lead as a lovely flick into the box from Spence found Dickson who had timed his run perfectly to dink a beautiful effort over the keeper and into the net.

Both sides then exchanged efforts at goal before Ruff then struck the post for Hornchurch, however with twenty minutes remaining the Urchins did add a third when lovely build up play saw the ball played to Nash who swivelled and struck a lovely left footed effort in off the post and see the striker finally grab a goal his good all round play deserved.

Frenford though continued to play well and did force a decent save from the visitors keeper, whilst the visitors did have more chances to add to their tally, but in the end they settled for three and a decent win on their first outing before the real stuff begins next month. Many positives to take from this one for both sides, I thought Frenford gave a really good account of themselves and showed they have a strong side to compete in the Thurlow Nunn Eastern Senior South division this season.

Full Time Frenford 0 Hornchurch 3