Ben McGrail's Andover Sound FC Training Blog

Trev Knight is our goalkeeper for the big game. He also happens to be the manager of Andover New Street's Ladies team. He thought it would be a good idea for us to play them in a training match...I didn't.

However, on Thursday evening we all met up at Charlton Lakes and took on the girls in an hour-long game...and lost, badly. They're a very impressive team with good fitness, skill and organisation and beat us 5-2 (it might have been 6-2). There were some positives from the match though - some of our players performed really well and will be important parts of the team for the big game. The Hawk impressed me as well! After a shaky start he settled in at left-back and put in a good showing.

I, sadly, didn't perform as well. It's been a long week at the office (what with people driving Rolls Royce's into supermarkets and all) and I've not had nearly enough sleep. I did manage to open the scoring in the game with a tidy left-footed volley but after that my influence in the match was minimal as the lack of sleep caught up wth me! I'll be fighting fit next week though, that's for sure!

Thanks to Trev and the girls for a great game and good luck to them next season. So...one week to go until our charity match and the training is hotting up. Roll on next week!

Scroll down to see photos from the game:

The warm-up...Ben McGrail, Gavin Harris and Rob 'The Hawk' Hawkins

The team get their instructions from Trev: Marc McIntyre, Ben, Nigel Merritt, Tommy Gentleman, Trev Knight and Gavin Harris

We size up our opposition

Kick off!

The girls dominate early on

Trev Knight cleans up at the back

It was a bit congested in midfield...those girls didn't go easy on us!

Tommy G sizing up a pass

The Hawk hits the deck

Ben after one of many embarrassing misses

Trev with an unorthadox goalkeeping style

Kicking off after conceding another goal

Gavin Harris flying down the wing