[ Tue 24th Jul ] v Brackley Town, KO 7:45pm PSF HOME

[gibston]

Agree I'd love to see hally added to team. Good player.... scores goals,works hard & a massive throwing. Think if you can get him on board you can get away with needing out & out winger,hally & Bowen up top with diamond in behind them as you could see last night it works & we look a threat.Pleased to see westy have a good game too.

[BartonRaz]

Hicks has signed this morning. Based on his performances so far I can't see him holding down a regular midfield spot ahead of Farrell, Westbrook, Oulton and Diamond however his footballing CV suggests there might be more to come with recent experience at Step 1.

http://www.afcdiamonds.com/diamonds-sign-nathan-hicks

[davealbon]

Last night was my first pre-season game too, and I was quite impressed with the performance. Sure, it wasn't the most exciting game (although I certainly wouldn't call it boring), but was a good workout from which we'll have learned a lot more than comfortably beating a step 5 or 6 side.

First half was very even, both sides having spells where they looked the more threatening, without creating anything clear cut. James Hall impressed me immensely, as did Ben Diamond, although we didn't get him on the ball as much as I'd have liked (maybe a good thing in hindsight). Ben Farrell looked as comfortable as he was against step 4 sides last season, and defensively we were faultless.
Second half was a different story; I thought Brackley controlled the majority of it, although still struggled to create anything clear cut (great strike for the goal) but we finished strongly, and Nathan Hicks really should have buried his one-on-one.

I think it's very difficult to pick a preferred formation at the moment; the 3-5-2 that worked so well last season was largely down to the quality, pace and work rate of the two wing backs. We don't currently have anyone in their mould; Westy and Brownie will do a great job on the defensive side (ideal, as Jon suggested, against the better sides in our league) but we will miss an awful lot going forward. 4-4-2 isn't an option without proper wingers, so a 4-3-3 might be the way to go, although it seems there are mixed opinions about that from our previous friendlies.

[sandringhamdiamond]

II’m actually looking forward to being the underdog, after 6 years of everyone playing ya with nothing to lose like potters bar away or Uxbridge at home, we should enjoy it being the other way round for a while

Exactly this, it was getting a bit "boring" where we turn up to either win by a couple of goals or if we didn't it was a complete disaster. I've always thought when we are the underdog we create a better match atmosphere, a few times last season it was a little flat at HR. i'm really looking forward to the Kings Lynn and Tamworth matches, I'm sure they wont come to HR and put 10 men behind the ball. I just hope the majority of our fans buy this and don't think its still we must win or its a disaster.