Pre Season Friendly, Tuesday 8th July
My second pre season outing saw me pop over to Hullbridge and one of the outside pitches at Lower Road as the hosts, Hullbridge Sports, were welcoming local side Rayleigh Town to their shores on a beautiful evening in South Essex.
Now these places are very close together, in fact Hullbridge is practically a village on the outskirts of Rayleigh, and although Rayleigh is a bigger place in terms of size, it is actually Hullbridge who ply their trade in a higher division, Step Five & the Essex Senior League, whereas Rayleigh Town are in Step Six and the Thurlow Nunn South division.
However there wasn't to much between the sides in terms of positions in the pyramid last season, Bridge largely struggled last season and finished in the lower reaches of the ESL, whilst Rayleigh made the post season play offs in their division before losing out in the final of that to Hackney Wick, who won promotion to the ESL as a result for this season.
This was very much a local derby, and one that would be keenly contested regardless of the pre season friendly tag, the chirping had already begun before a ball had even been kicked, both sides wanted to win even if their was no points at stake, bragging rights and a confidence boost ahead of the season were on offer though, even if that isn't the most important thing building up to a new season.
Rayleigh went very close to taking an early lead when they thumped a close range effort against the bar, they also had two or three other decent openings in the first period, as did Hullbridge, who themselves had a few close calls at the other end, and although the first half did end goalless, it was not without chances and incidents, it had been a pretty even and well contested first forty five minutes.
The second half though would see Hullbridge get a better grip of the two in the game, and nine minutes into the second period they won a penalty after a blatant foul, although Rayleigh were claiming the attacker was offside before he was taken out, but no flag came, and the hosts duly fired home the spot kick to edge in front.
Both sides continued to huff and puff in warm conditions, but it was Bridge who were making the better use of it, Rayleigh were making a few more mistakes in the second period and allowing their opponents to have good attacking positions as a result, and with fifteen minutes remaining they doubled their lead after a simple ball behind the backline was run onto and a decent finish applied, 2-0 Hullbridge.
Rayleigh did have their openings in the second period but Hullbridge probably had the better of the second half, Rayleigh would have been a tad disappointed at their second half showing though in the majority, and were certainly put through their paces after the final whistle by their management team who seemed less than impressed with what they had seen as well, still this is pre season and more minutes in the legs and more things found out ahead of the new season.
Full time Hullbridge Sports 2 Rayleigh Town 0
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