Birmingham and Howell buoyed by Bognor Regis Town’s win at Chichester
Michael Birmingham and Jamie Howell will feel a lot happier going into their Isthmian South Central campaign following a 2-0 win in a pre-season friendly against rivals Chichester City at Oaklands Park on Friday.
The morale-boosting victory came about thanks to goals from Billy Allcock and Tommy Scutt.
Birmingham and Howell's side delivered their best display of the summer against the Isthmian premier division outfit and in fairness could have won by more. Not that the hosts didn't have decent spells of possession and pose their own threat, especially after the break.
But Bognor played with purpose and pragmatism to thwart a well-drilled City side -- and seemed unified in their efforts to put behind them the demoralising 4-1 trouncing at Wimborne Town last week.
And co-boss Birmingham said: "We needed a reaction after last Saturday. I know when I had a slow walk back to my flat in Southsea last week after the game at Wimborne it was, ‘can we get any worse?'
"And then when you take the finer details out of it and break it down, logically this is the reason we had to call the friendly game off against Weymouth (on Tuesday) because we would have had a lot of youngsters there.
“The boys did okay tonight, there is no point going, 'ah yeah, what a result, what a performance', because as we know a week in football is a long time (before Rocks go to Portchester in the league opener).
“We had a good training session on Wednesday and the boys really took on board what we were asking of them and I thought they did that to a tee against Chichester, every single one of them. They bought into it, they understood their roles and responsibilities and but we still have a few things to iron out.”
Now the focus switches to that opening game of the campaign next Saturday, August 9, when the Rocks go to AFC Portchester for the big curtain-raiser.
He added: “Porchy is going to be a very different side (to Chichester). They are at home, they haven't lost at home since October 4 last year. They have won four trophies (last season) and it is a fortress there. It's a very tough place to go but we will have a game plan and we will work on it Tuesday and Thursday at training.”
Against Chichester, the visitors welcomed back left-back Matt Jones and played a trialist on the left wing and at right full-back, while veteran Arundel Maciek Kason kept goal – and did so very competently – in the absence of the injured Mac Chisholm.
Rocks started with a resolute approach and looked solid at the back with Ethan Robb sitting in front of the back four to allow attacking play to develop.
Simba Mlambo and Cal Laycock showed a development in their understanding of each other's strengths and with a narrow shape out of possession, the Rocks looked to frustrate the hosts.
The hard work paid off just before the break when Allcock, a summer signing from Horndean, found the back of the net for 1-0 thanks to his half volley breaking the deadlock as it careered in off the post.
Simba, who saw a penalty claim waved away by the ref, had two good chances to extend the advantage, as did sub Lennie Smith after a jet-heeled break provided hope -- but he couldn't finish off the move with a goal.
Yet there was to be another goal and it came with plenty of panache. Tommy Scutt, another recruit from Horndean, let fly with a cracker from distance and made it 2-0 just before the whistle.
An encouraging aspect to this performance was the shot ratio, with the visitors peppering the City goal with more than 20 efforts during the 90 minutes.