Wednesday 28/7/10

Favourite's beaten

by Stuart Moore

In what was a very good work-out for both sides, the Swans narrowly defeated one of the Ryman League title favourites over at Gander Green Lane. U’s manager Paul Doswell has added quality to the side that lost in the play-off semi-final again last season, particularly with renowned striker Craig Dundas and Richard Jolly coming into their squad. In the other dug-out, Swans manager Steve Cordery continued to look at young Warren Harris and former Wolves junior David Ijaha with additional triallists Dan Bailey (ex QPR and Rushden & Diamonds) and Kim Tae-Hun (AFC Wimbledon triallist) on the bench and awaiting their turn to impress.

The only goal of the game came as early as the second minute and came courtesy of Simon Jackson defence splitting throughball from full-back to the inside right role, where Marc Charles-Smith outstripped his defender and then drew U’s ‘keeper Shaw before hammering his shot low into the bottom corner. A perfect start for the Swans then, and they came close to doubling their advantage when Andre Scarlett’s free-kick whizzed through before being collected low-down by the busy home ‘keeper.

Mind you at the other end, the U’s began to find their own stride with skipper Tom davis unlucky to see his effort strike the post before a pair of efforts for Richard Jolly could both have easily have found the net – indeed the second seemed destined to do so before Marien Ifura cleared the ball from under the crossbar. In between, one of the moves of the game saw Risbridger’s terrific pass set Jackson free down the right flank for the Swans and he crossed low to the near post where Harris had the ball taken off his toe by a challenge from both ‘keeper and defender.

As per the preceding pre-season games, Cordery had changed his entire starting line-up by soon after the hour mark and with a couple of fresh legs themselves, Sutton continued to knock on the door with Wells and latterly Nick Jupp both making saves to deny the experienced Steve Watts and most notably Bradley Woods-Garness from fully 35 yards. It wasn’t all one way traffic however, with the Swans often likely to snatch a second goal, although the closest the visitors came was in the last two minutes when Scott Taylor manufactured a silky move which culminated in his own shot whistling across the face of goal.

Friday 23/7/10

SWANS TAKE BEES SCALP….AGAIN!

In what has become an annual event in the pre-season calendar at Wheatsheaf Park, Staines Town took on their closest Football League opponents, Brentford on Thursday evening in front of a crowd of some 700 and, much has been the case in the past, it was the ‘underdogs’ who raised their game and grabbed the win in what was a terrific pre-season match-up.

Swans manager Steve Cordery introduced Warren Harris to the home support, the diminutive, young wide-player seemingly set to make the short move from neighbours Ashford Town (Middx) ahead of the new Blue Square Bet South campaign. As for the N-Power League One side, manager Andy Scott chose a strong squad to continue their preparations with new signings McCracken, Spillane, Diagouraga and ‘keeper Richard Lee all starting alongside plenty of familiar Griffin Park favourites. However, it was the former Watford custodian who was first into the action, when he was expertly beaten by a perfectly judged lofted shot from Swans striker Richard Butler which opened the scoring for the home side inside the first five minutes. That boost set the tone for the home side who were confident and in the groove, ensuring that the Bees had to up their game and they equalized from a 13th minute corner when Spillane rose majestically to head home Saunders corner kick from the far-side. This didn’t spur the Brentford revival however and it was the Swans who regained the lead following further pressure, similarly a corner, this time by the lively Leroy Griffiths was floated deep to the back post where big defender Marien Ifura rose to head back across the goal and somehow the ball eluded everybody and crept in at the far post, although surely ‘keeper Lee and his defence would have been distracted by Butler’s attempts in vain to add a finishing touch.

A very unfortunate injury held the game up for the best part of ten minutes after young Jack Ward suffered a suspected broken-leg when he fell awkwardly following an innocuous challenge. The player was taken to hospital and went with the best wishes of all.

Thankfully the game didn’t suffer following this unfortunate stoppage and the Swans netted a deserved third goal midway through the second period when the effervescent Griffiths looped a clever finish over the heads of Lee and his defenders after the striker had pounced on a mistake at the back – late in the first half Griffiths had been unlucky when his drilled low strike smacked off the foot of the post with the visiting ‘keeper helpless to intervene.

Only in the last quarter of an hour did the Bees seek to grab a hold of the game after the Swans had made seven changes and with Leon Legge pushed up-front, the pressure was brought to bear when Sam Saunders smashed a terrific free-kick straight into the top-corner of the net, beating reserve ‘keeper Nick Jupp in the 80th minute.

After the match, a satisfied Swans manager Steve Cordery was largely pleased with the evening’s events claiming that his side had “played some good stuff during the game.”

Stuart Moore

Monday 19/7/10

SWANS TAKE FIRST HONOURS OF NEW CAMPAIGN

With two games in 24hrs, Steve Cordery was able to select two completely different squads for their games in the inaugural ‘Geoff Harvey Memorial Vase’ (four-cornered) tournament hosted by Corinthian Casuals at their home in Tolworth over the weekend. Pleasingly, by the conclusion of a hot afternoon’s work on Sunday, it was the Swans who were presented with the winners’ glassware trophy following a comfortable 3-0 win over the home side.

On the previous day, the Swans had defeated Ryman Premier Division outfit Tooting & Mitcham United by the only goal, although that narrow margin of success was maybe a little flattering on the Terrors who rarely threatened Louis Wells in the Swans goal. The only goal of the game came courtesy of full-back Dominic Sterling who rose high and twisted in mid-air before planting an unstoppable header beyond the Tooting ‘keeper just shy of the half an hour mark, the goal being set-up from a terrific delivery by Mazin Ahmad and his free-kick from the left flank.

Sunday’s game saw less than half a dozen senior players involved on the Swans side, but it was the experience of those few that helped to quickly turn the game into a rather one-sided affair. Striker Leroy Griffiths was particularly prevalent, returning to the ground where he first kicked-off his prodigious footballing career some fifteen years or so earlier. Griffiths bagged the first goal with an arrowing strike into the far corner on twenty minutes and he then continued to set-up the next two goals, firstly drilling a devilish cross into the box from the left-hand side, which big defender Chris Horwood could not cope with, turning the ball into his own net with an outstretched leg. The third goal came within a minute of the restart as skipper for the day Gareth Risbridger tried to work space for a shot just outside the box, thwarted he turned the ball out wide to Griffiths who beat his man and crossed into the box where Risbridger arrived and, falling, headed the ball over the ‘keeper and in at the far post.

The Swans now have a very busy schedule at their Wheatsheaf Park home this coming week as a Reading XI are the visitors on Tuesday before both Brentford and Dagenham & Redbridge send their full N-Power Football League squads down for games on Thursday and Saturday respectively.

Stuart Moore

Monday 12/7/10

Swans fans delight at Butler’s return Home

Following plenty of rumours circulating, Swans fans were delighted to see the re-appearance of Wheatsheaf Park favourite Richard Butler as the Middlesex side kicked-off their pre-season schedule with a visit from N-Power League Two side Lincoln City on Saturday.

The locally born and bred player had departed Wheatsheaf Park after a classic ‘offer he couldn’t refuse’ in January, joining the Staines’ Blue Square South rivals Bromley, but the Kent side flattered to deceive, eventually finishing the campaign inside the bottom half of the table, despite half a dozen goals from the former AFC Wimbledon legend. Without his effervescent presence up-front, the Swans however continued to enjoy their debut season, only missing out on a play-off spot in the last week of what was a memorable campaign.

Over the summer months however Butler explained how the grass seemed suddenly not greener at Bromley prior to his making a return to the excellent Wheatsheaf Park pitch on Saturday - “Things were not working out as planned there at Bromley and the Manager advised that the budget was being cut for the coming season. I still had a year to run on my contract there, but the revised deal they offered me was less than originally planned. Still, they gave me the opportunity to strike a deal if I wished to leave and, despite them telling me they had some good interest from other Clubs, the only call I wanted to make was to Cords – I had no other plans, I can tell you. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my stay there at Bromley – they’re a good bunch of lads, but things maybe didn’t go as well as planned and of course, I could see that the team here was going from strength to strength. Last season Staines came so close to what would have been a fantastic achievement, getting in the play-offs and so, with just about everybody still here and with a little bit of extra quality added, I’m really looking forward to helping us push on and achieve something special this season. We all got a good look at the opposition last season and, although some good sides are coming-up, I still feel we could have a big say at the top of the table – I’m really looking forward to and it’s great to be back.”

Having looked back to his usual tigerish self in midweek training, Butler played the first 45 minutes in the searing heat of Saturday’s pre-season friendly versus Chris Sutton’s Lincoln City – indeed, it was Butler’s incisive snap-shot which cannoned down from striking the cross-bar to allow striker partner Scott Taylor to open the scoring in the first half, before the Swans succumbed 2-1 in what was an excellent work out for both sides.

Stuart Moore

Thursday 8/7/10

Reading X1 to visit Wheatsheaf Park

Championship side Reading will bring a team down to Staines on Tuesday July 20th with a 7.30 pm kick off, bringing the total number of Football League sides visiting Wheatsheaf Park to four.

A special ticket block can be purchased at the Lincoln game this Saturday priced at £30 which enables entry to all four matches with concessions priced at £15, and students £18.

Monday 5/7/10

Red Imps set to kick-off Swans pre-season schedule…

Whilst Alan Shearer remains a rare commodity (an Englishman gainfully employed in South Africa,) the other half of the previously feared Blackburn Rovers ‘SAS Partnership’, Chris Sutton, will also be on-show this Saturday (10th July) but much closer to home, as he oversees his Lincoln City side at Wheatsheaf Park where the Coca-Cola League Two club kick-off the pre-season campaign with an intriguing friendly fixture against Staines Town.

The game, the first of a trio of warm-up matches involving Football League clubs at the Swans home in the coming weeks, was arranged following some rather ‘out of the blue’ communication from the Sincil Bank club and Staines Town Chairman Alan Boon believes it was Sutton’s assistant manager, former Chelsea and West Ham United defender Ian Pearce, who helped set-up the game with the Swans, who of course can offer such opposition a terrific venue and perfect pitch to begin their own preparations ahead of the coming 2010/11 campaign. Pearce had more recently been involved with local sides Kingstonian and Walton Casuals before accepting his new role in the East Midlands towards the end of the last campaign.

Following a well-earned break in the Mediterranean, Swans Manager Steve Cordery will return to the training ground this week alongside assistant Craig Maskell and coach Trent Phillips to oversee a squad very familiar to that which performed so well in their debut campaign in the Blue Square South last season. Indeed, Cordery is looking forward to seeing the entirety of last season’s squad through their paces during a five week pre-season campaign which will take in no less than eleven games for the senior squad. However, before all this (on Tuesday 6th) Phillips will take charge of a team made-up almost exclusively of triallists who’re hoping to earn a deal with the Swans as they take on an AFC Hayes side in a low-key match at the British Airways Concorde Club facilities in Cranford. Who knows what ‘pearls’ may come out of that match-up?

One confirmed new face already training hard and getting to know his new team-mates is former Brentford man Ryan Peters who signed for the Swans from Braintree Town just a few weeks ago and is already looking to be settling in very well. As for further new faces, well it’s no secret that Cordery will be looking to add one or two, but with a handful of Clubs seemingly paying inflated process to secure deals early on, the wily supremo at Wheatsheaf Park is happy to bide his time before seeking to pick-up a couple of bargains as the expected rush to find clubs will soon surely kick-in amongst the many players seeking to settle down and find a new club.

Stuart Moore

Thursday 1/7/10

2010/11 Fixtures

The fixtures for next season's Blue Square bet South campaign have now been released and sees the the Swans kick the season off at home to Lewes on August 14th. The following Tuesday its a trip to Bishop's Stortford, before a mouth watering early season away clash at Martin Haye's Dover Athletic. Full list here.