Another closely fought friendly on a chilly Hartham.

Another well balanced friendly this morning versus Hertford Town Bs gave Bury Reds a chance to put their training into practice in a competitive and high scoring game. We saw debut team performances from Jessica Botheras and Freddy Morgan-Smith and it was great to see both players really applying themselves and making a really positive contribution to the team. Overall the game was well balanced and the 12 – 8 scoreline flattered Hertford a little.
Luca Kryzcala took the captain's armband this week and showed good leadership to keep his team focused on maintaining shape in possession and defence. He also secured 2 of Bury's goals. The usual rotation plan gave all players in the 8-strong squad a chance to play in goal, defending and attacking positions. Then first quarter, which ended 3-2 to Bury, saw Abi Knight stand up well in goal, making a number of good clearances under pressure from the Hertford forwards. Anthony Murphy showed his mettle, landing a hat trick ably supported by Ryan Harrison-Stokoe who himself had a number of shots on target. Freddy Morgan-Smith and Alexander Rhind performed solidly in defence, blocking a number of attempts on goal.
The 2nd quarter saw Hertford take the lead, with Anthony Murphy donning the goalkeeper’s jersey to make a couple of cracking saves to limit the damage and Luca and Edward Barry defending hard and building the counter attack, supporting Abi and Alexander up front. The third and fourth quarters saw a strong comeback from the Reds with Luca and Anthony forming a strong goal scoring partnership and Ryan working tirelessly and delivering on the personal challenge we gave him to assist a couple of goals. Freddy performed fearlessly in goal making some brave saves as did Edward, looming large over the whole of his area and Jessica’s determination in pressing and tackling was impressive. On a few occasions the pace of the Hertford attack overcame the Reds ability to fall back into defence quickly enough – something for us to work at in training.
It was great to see the team enjoying themselves and working really well together in what was a really enjoyable game - well done Reds!