“IT wasn’t exactly as we had planned for the first hour on Saturday – but then we weren’t exactly planning to be playing against two Olympic sprinters.”

IT wasn’t exactly as we had planned for the first hour on Saturday – but then we weren’t exactly planning to be playing against two Olympic sprinters.

Beaconsfield aren’t a great side, but they had two solid banks of four and two guys who should have been in the final of the 100 metres instead of on a football pitch.

Every time they got the ball they would smash it over the top to their strikers, and they kept getting away from us. They used their tactics well and it was effective.

You don’t coach your defence to sit on the edge of their 18-yard box, but we eventually had to retreat and it worked. We wore them down and tired them out and were quite comfortable 4-2 winners.

It’s difficult to get that kind of information on to the pitch as the game is going on, so we had to wait until half time to make the changes.

But it was addressed in time and we turned it around.

We had Woodford United away last night (Tuesday) and we’ve got a trip to Aylesbury on Saturday.

I’ve seen both teams in the last couple of weeks, and they both have different styles to Beaconsfield.

It will be a test for us to adapt, but we will have to do that a lot during the season, and we will be looking for two wins from the games.

We’ve also arranged a link-up with AFC Rushden and Diamonds so that their fans can watch us and benefit their own club as well.

They used to get two or three thousand, and there are about 800 hardcore fans who will still be looking for some football to watch on Saturday afternoons. They might not want to pay �15 to watch Conference football, but �8 to watch us isn’t much and will help their club, too, as they get a donation from us for each fan through the gate.