Bristol City were forced to battle back from behind in Wednesday’s behind closed doors friendly against Newport County.
With the game originally set to be entertainment for a crowd, the fans were off grimacing about England’s performance against Croatian, as despite dominating, holding the lead and having far greater early chances, we were probably lucky to get to extra time without losing it.
Either way, England went on to lose unfortunately but having failed to get that all-important second goal when we were on top, Croatia did more deserve it in the end. But this is about England, so moving on.
Visitors Newport gave us their own kind of test in the behind-closed-doors friendly as head coach Lee Johnson shuffled his pack for the game, which he had intimated previously in interviews. Padraig Amond and Josh Sheehan were on target for them, but goals from Andreas Weimann and Marley Watkins saw us come out with a 2-2 all draw at Failand.
It was far from a great game from the sounds of things as Newport dominated the early stages by our own admission, but it’s pre-season you never want a false sense of security and the harder you’re pushed, the theory is the quicker you bounce back when it counts.
City’s first 60 minutes XI:
Trialist 1, Jack Hunt (George Dowling 50), Aden Baldwin, Tin Plavotic (Taylor Moore 45), George Nurse, Marley Watkins, Korey Smith, Liam Walsh, Connor Lemonheigh-Evans, Jamie Paterson, Andreas Weimann.
City’s final 30 minutes XI:
Trialist 1, George Dowling, Harvey Smith, Taylor Moore, Cameron Pring, Rory Holden, James Morton, Tyreeq Bakinson, Jake Andrews, Antoine Senenyo, Saikou Janneh.
Goals – Weimann (37), Watkins (42).
County first-half XI:
Day, Butler, Demetriou, Franks, Forbes, Crofts, Dolan, Sheehan, Marsh-Brown, Amond, Willmott.
County second-half XI:
Trialist 1, Trialist 2, Foulston, O’Brien, Bennett, Trialist 3, Pipe, Cooper, Trialist 4, Touray, Matt.
Goals – Amond (7), Sheehan (10)
On to Shrewsbury Town at the weekend at Ashton Gate.
I don’t see why there won’t be a highlights package some point later today, I doubt I’m alone in wondering how the goals were conceded or what the quality of the strikes from our newbies were.
