Horncastle bosses pleased with win ahead of Boston United test
Joint-boss Will Rawdon says he was happy with what he saw from Horncastle Town’s 4-3 pre-season win over Collingham on Saturday.
With just over a fortnight to go until the start of the new season, it was a useful game for the Wongers against a side who play at the same level but in the Notts Senior League.
And Rawdon, who manages the team alongside his brother, John, said: “It was another really good workout for us both physically and mentally.
"It was more of a competitive fixture given they also play at step seven – they finished second and won a cup last year so it was nice to gauge where we’re at in terms of our levels.
"Ultimately, it’s a pre-season fixture so it’s never exactly the same but I think we got enough out of it and it was really good to score some goals.
"Defensively we’ve been working on a lot of things recently in terms of shape and how we want to set up, and we’re looking to be hard to beat this season.
"We set the lads the task of being effective in possession, because the previous two games had been against higher level opposition in Louth and Boston Town, where we didn’t see as much of the ball as we might do in a league game, so the lads did really well and created some really good passages of play.”
The next test will be the John Rawdon Memorial Trophy – played annually at The Wong in honour of Will and John’s dad who played for both Horncastle and their opponents Boston United.
The game takes place on Friday at 7.45pm and Will said: "It’ll be a competitive fixture again and one that John and I want to go and win.
"It’ll be a game full of emotion because it’s the first time either of us, or any Rawdon, has managed the team in the fixture so it will be a good one with lots of support.
"We’ll then take on a Lincoln City XI next Wednesday night – the first time we’ve played Lincoln City in over 20 years. The last time they came it was under Keith Alexander but the fixture fizzled out for some reason, but we’ve managed to regain connections with Lincoln and hopefully this can be the start of an annual fixture.
"Overall it’s been a positive pre-season, focused on preparation, and the players have been really receptive and hard-working and we’ll be fine tuning that focus and detail as pre-season goes into its closing stages.”