Pre-Season 2012/13: New Beginnings

I joined Wembley at the start of pre-season, and I didn't know what a task I had ahead of me. Only two half decent players were at the club. Daryl Atkins, and Lee Pearce.

Immediately, I started looking for new players, focusing primarily on trying to balance the signings equally through-out the whole team. 

Immediate contract offers went to players suck as 20 year old GK Simon Locke, 28 year old CM Adnan Ahmed, and 20 year old ST Liam Head.

We arranged an intra-squad friendly against our reserves to gauge where our team stood performance wise, hoping we would find a gem.

The game against our reserves would be held behind closed doors, at Vale Farm, our home stadium that we shared with Hendon FC for some reason.

Our team sheet for this game was:

Starting XI: L. Pierce (c), J. Pruton, R. Beckham, K. Hirst, B. Gayle, J. Baldwin, D. Ganderton, N. Durrant,  C. Casson, D. Atkins, R. McCluskey

Subs: J. Seargeant, D. Parke, J. Joynson, T. May, E. Pass, E. Halliday

As you would expect, it was a very one-sided game with it being against our reserves, and we were able to score first, when McCluskey was tackled in the box, the ball fell to Daryl Atkins who fired the ball into the bottom corner. We came close again in the 57th minute, when Robert McCluskey hit the post after connecting with Casson's cross. After having to go down to 10 men because of injuries, Wembley Reserves pulled it level through Solako, after he was able to pounce onto the rebound of his original shot, and slot it past the keeper in the 81st minute. Solako then went close again, when his 25 yard effort hit the cross bar, and bounced back into the middle of the penalty box, to be cleared by Beckham.

I was disappointed with the fact that we couldn't beat our reserves, but at least I knew we needed a LOT of improvement, and I suppose you can't help injuries.

Final score: Wembley 1-1 Wembley Res. 

Our first signing of the season came the day after the game against our reserves, and was 18 year old, Polish CB Stefan Galinskion a free transfer. Of course, as we are only an amateur side, all of our signings would be free transfers.

Before the next friendly, we also managed to sign 31 year old RB/RM Tom Betteridge, 22 year old CM Matt Johnson, 20 year old GK Simon Locke, 31 year old LB Tom Williams, 35 year old LB Sacha Opinel, 19 year old RB Patrick Nzuzi, 20 year old CM Dino Fazlic, 20 year old ST Liam Head and 20 year old Ryan Limb

Our next game was away against Aylesbury FC 

With plenty of new signings, we were keen to show what we could do ahead of the new season!

We had made many changes to the match squad. This was the team sheet:

Starting XI: S. Locke, T. Betteridge, S. Galinski, K. Hirst (c), T. Williams, N. Durrant, M. Johnson, D. Fazlic, D. Atkins, L. Head, D. Bembo-Leta

Subs: L. Pierce, B. Gayle, D. Park, T. May, E. Pass, J. Baldwin, R. Limb, J. Joynson, C. Casson, R. McCluskey, R. Beckham, S. Opinel

We got off to a shocker when, in the 2nd minute, Miah played through Craig Faulconbridge, who was able to squeeze it past Simon Locke, and into the back of the net. Faulconbridge then repaid the favour 10 minutes later, when he played a through ball over the defence, and Miah was able to loft the ball over Simon Locke and into the net. Brian Haule than added to our misery, when he was able to beat Galinski to Topliss' cross, to volley past Locke in the 28th minute. At half-time, I told the players exactly what I thought. We weren't good enough, and I expected a much better performance in the second half. We started the second half much better, and Liam Head headed Tom William's cross past the keeper in the 49th minute. Despite this, from the kick-off, Hedley played the ball to Haule, who placed the ball past Locke. Just 3 minutes later, and Djeny Bembo-Leta volleyed Betteridge's cross past the keeper. The rest of the game was just as eventful, but no further goals were scored.

I was devastated with the result, especially with the 61% of possession we had, and knew there was still much work to do before we started the season

Final score: Aylesbury 4-2 Wembley

We managed to sign 20 year old, Italian stopper Mirko Ranieri on a free transfer, but lost out on Aristote Nsiala to Crewe Alexandra.

We also managed to sign 20 year old CB Jordan Anderson, and 16 year old GK Raphael Richardson, and I had a funny feeling that we wouldn't be able to hold on to Daryl Atkins.

Our next game was away at Huntingdon Town, and we were looking for a big improvement following our poor defeat to Aylesbury.

We made a couple of changes to the starting XI for this game. Here's the team sheet:

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, P. Nzuzi, S, Galinski, J. Anderson, T. Williams, N. Durrant, M. Johnson, D. Fazlic, D. Atkins (c), L. Head, D. Bembo-Leta

Subs: S. Locke, B. Gayle, D. Park, T. May, E. Pass, J. Baldwin, R. Limb, J. Joynson, T. Betteridge,         R. McCluskey, R. Beckham, S. Opinel

We started poorly, and Huntingdon dominated possession for the first 10-15 minutes. After that, we started passing the ball around, and eventually scored the first goal of the game through Stefan Galinski, who headed in Dino Fazlic's corner in the 20th minute. Went scored again 8 minutes later, when Djeny Bembo-Leta pulled the ball back to Liam Head from the by-line, who turned the ball into the back of the net.

I was quite happy with our performance. We played much better than we previously had, and we managed to keep a clean sheet!

Final score: Huntingsdon 0-2 Wembley

Our next game was against Hendon FC, who were in the league above us, and who we shared our ground with. 

We rotated the squad a little, but were still hoping to be competitive.

This was the team sheet:

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, P. Nzuzi (c), S. Galinski, B. Gayle, T. Williams, N. Durrant, J. Baldwin, D. Park,

R. McCluskey, R. Limb, D. Bembo-Leta

Subs: S, Locke, J. Anderson, D. Fazlic, T. May, E. Pass, M. Johnson, D. Atkins, J. Joynson, T. Betteridge, L. Head, R. Beckham, S. Opinel

We opened the scoring against the stronger side, when Ryan Limb headed Durrant's cross over the Hendon goalkeeper, just before half-time. We soaked up the pressure from Hendon in the second half, and they came closest to equalising just before full-time, when Hendon RW Carl McCluskey forced a great save from Mirko Ranieri. 

Overall, I was happy with the result, as we were against a better team, and we were resting some key players. 

Final score: Wembley 1-0 Hendon

A couple of days after the Hendon result, we signed 22 year old, Brazilian CB Raphael Branco, who had previously been contracted to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Before the next game, lost Daryl Atkins on a free, but we signed 33 year old ST Mark McCammon, 31 year  old CM Ciaran Toner, 29 year old ST Vincent Pericard, and 32 year old CM Dwane Lee.

Our next pre-season friendly was against Ascot United, and we were looking to see how our new signings performed.

Again, we made some changes to the match squad.

Here is the team sheet:

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, T. Betteridge, S. Galinksi. Raphael Branco, T. Williams, D. Fazlic (c), C. Toner, D. Lee, L. Head, V. Pericard, M. McCammon

Subs: S. Locke, J. Anderson, J. Baldwin, R. McCluskey, E. Pass, M. Johnson, D. Park, R. Limb,
P. Nzuzi, D. Bembo-Leta, R. Beckham, S. Opinel

We dominated from the off, but it took 36 minutes for the first goal to be scored, when Liam Head played a good through ball to Pericard, who walked the ball past the Ascot keeper, and over the line. We started the second half brightly, with Mark McCammon missing a sitter. Vincent Pericard scored the second, when McCammon was able to slip the ball into the box, and Pericard could bury the ball into the back of the net with Oguyundo sliding in. Pericard was then denied a hat-trick, when his 20 yard strike that was heading towards the top corner, was acrobatically saved by the Ascot keeper. McCluskey then managed a fluke goal, when his cross from the byline drifted towards the goal, and deflected in of the goalkeeper.

Overall, it was a good performance, and I was happy with how the new signings seemed to be bedding in.

Final score: Ascot United 0-3 Wembley

Just after the Ascot match finished, we confirmed the signing of 28 year old, Pakistani midfielder Adnan Ahmed on a free transfer from Nelson FC.

Our final friendly of the pre-season was against Lewes FC.

We rotated the squad a little to help with fitness levels, and to see how our back-up players could do.

Starting XI: M. Ranieri, P. Nzuzi, J. Anderson, Raphael Branco, S. Opinel, M. Johnson, A.Ahmed,
E. Pass, R. McCluskey, R. Limb (c), D. Bembo-Leta

Subs: S. Locke, T.Williams, D. Fazlic, L. Head, S. Galinski, C. Toner, M. McCammon, T. Betteridge,      V. Pericard, D. Lee, J. Baldwin, T. May

We got off to a great start, when just 2 minutes in, Sacha Opinel played a quick one-two with Ryan Limb, before slotting the ball past the keeper. Jordan Anderson then added a second when he was able to turn Ahmed's corner in with his head in the 28th minute. 10 minutes later, and Matt Johnson struck McCluskey's pull-back, right into the top corner from 25 yards. Liam Head added another in the 74th minute, when he was allowed space in the box to volley Dino Fazlic's corner into the back of the net. Head continued to pile on the misery for the travelling Lewes as he was able to head Tom Williams' cross into the goal in the 82nd minute.

A great performance, against a much better team!

Final score: Wembley 5-0 Lewes

With this big win, we looked as though we were raring to go for the new season, and looked as though we would be a force to reckon with!