PORTLAND UNITED 1 CHICKERELL UNITED 1

BLUES chief Gary Bailey admitted his side weren’t at their fluent best against Chickerell United on Saturday, but expressed his delight at their pre-season as a whole.

Portland brought the curtain down on their warm-up schedule courtesy of a 1-1 draw with Steve Coward’s Chickens at Grove Corner.

They will now turn their attentions to their opening Sydenhams Wessex Division One clash at Fleet Spurs this weekend.

“It wasn’t our best performance of pre-season to be fair, we were a bit flat, but Chickerell came and worked really hard,” Bailey told Echosport.

“They did to us what we did to Weymouth and Salisbury. They let us have the ball in areas where we weren’t going to hurt them.

“We had lots of possession, passed it around, and were kind of victims of our own comfort because we lost the tempo in our game.

“But it was a good exercise and everyone got minutes. We did not pick up any injuries and that was the main thing from that point of view.”

The Blues took the lead from a corner on eight minutes when assistant-manager Kyle Critchell stabbed the ball home.

But the Chickens, who Bailey was full of praise for after the contest, got their leveller in the second period.

A long-range effort from Joel Protheroe looped over visiting keeper Ian Bickerstaff and into the net to make it 1-1.

“We must not take anything away from Chickerell,” the island manager added.

“They came and worked their socks off, and good on them. We learnt a bit from it.”

Speaking about their pre-season in general, Bailey has been highly impressed with his troops.

He added: “It is so close to the start of the season now it is important we don’t get carried away with the good pre-season games we have had or get too downbeat with an under-par performance.

“On the whole, our pre-season has been very positive and that’s what I want to take into Saturday. Before then we will train tomorrow and Thursday.

“My general feeling from our pre-season preparation is of complete positivity.”

Skipper Lewis Whyton and central defender Ross Carmichael are expected to be back for the Blues when they visit Fleet Spurs on Saturday.

Blues (from): Lillington, Smith, Critchell, Peck, Bessant, Will, R Doidge, Halloran, Marshallsay, Linaker, McClements, Bastick, G Will, Attree, Gould, Mutch, Bickerstaff.

Match ball sponsor: The Barmy Army skittles team