Pre Season Friendly, Tuesday 11th July
My second game of 2023/24 saw me over at New Lodge for a pre season fixture between too local Essex sides, Billericay Town, who were embarking on a second season in the Isthmian Premier Division, and Aveley, who were about to begin one of their biggest season's in their history at the highest level they have encountered as a club.
The visitors won promotion to Step Two in the non league pyramid last season which for a club of their size is a remarkable achievement, and they are now a level above their opponents too now so were the higher level club visiting New Lodge, something that was unthinkable only two seasons ago when Billericay were two levels above tonight's opponents.
Town obviously suffered relegation from the National South the same season (2021/22) when Aveley were champions of the Isthmian North Division, so they did participate in the same division last season, Town had an average season at best, whereas as said above Aveley won promotion via the playoffs after a stunning win at Hornchurch.
Billericay will be looking for a much better campaign this time round and new manager Gary McCann is assembling a decent squad to hopefully in their eyes have a crack at promotion or at least the play offs, whereas Aveley will be no doubt amongst the favourites to be relegated from their division in the coming season so manager Danny Scopes will be hoping his side can prove them wrong and surprise a few this season.
In fact the visitors fielded an entire squad of trialists as they look to shape a squad to compete and mix it with the National League side boys, and after twelve minutes their skipper for the night, number six, nodded home the opener when his defensive partner, the number five, had nodded a ball back into the danger zone following a cross from the right.
And nine minutes before the break Aveley doubled their lead when the nine (who I found out was Matt Rush) crossed from the left and although the ten miskicked his effort at goal, it fell into the path of the seven who applied the finish across goal and into the far corner and confirm the visitors superiority in the opening forty five minutes.
The hosts had been poor in the first period but after both sides made wholesale changes at half time and during the second period, Billericay improved their performance and just before the hour mark pulled a goal back when a ball fed to Bradley Stevenson saw him apply a neat finish into the net from inside the box, and then in the 73rd minute they nearly levelled when striking the post in a goal mouth scramble.
A minute after that though Aveley went down the other end and won themselves a penalty after the nineteen was adjudged to have been felled inside the box, and the nineteen picked himself up to dispatch the spot kick and restore the visitors two goal cushion, and Aveley duly saw out the remainder of the contest to pick up the win in their latest run out before the season begins.
Full time Billericay Town 1 Aveley 3
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