Thursday is the opening game of the Anglian Combination Premier Division for Beccles Town who journey up the A146 to take on newly-promoted Loddon United.

Thursday is the opening game of the Anglian Combination Premier Division for Beccles Town who journey up the A146 to take on newly-promoted Loddon United.

The game kicks off at 6.30pm, and Beccles hope to see their loyal supporters.

Last week, Beccles Town completed another friendly game on Thursday, against a Southwold side.

Beccles started with a fairly strong eleven but left several first team regulars on the bench for a second-half outing.

The first half saw some strong competitive football with Southwold defending in depth and Beccles trying desperately for a break with almost continuous attacks.

Remblance and Martin both had good attacking runs but were foiled at the final touch.

Woods consistently had the beating of the full-back but disappointed with the final ball. McMorran had a couple of good runs down the right but again that final killer ball was missing.

Half-time saw the usual friendly player shuffle with Fiske, Peters, Hurren and Mayhew all coming on and James Ellis replacing Danny Cable in goal.

This did not vary the game tactically, but certainly spurred players into action and in the 48th minute Alan Remblance volleyed a clearance back at the goal while moving backwards to open the scoring.

Beccles then played some swift inter-passing football with good runs from Fiske and Hurren.

A strong run by McMorran in the 53rd minute ended with a trip in the penalty area with the resulting spot kick being converted by Alan Remblance to make it 2-1.

Then it was the turn of the other flank. Fiske slid a fine ball through to Woods on the left wing and his quality cross was headed home by Alan Remblance to make it 3-1 - his first hat-trick of the season.

Beccles then settled back and stroked the ball around convincingly and more player and positional changes were made while manager Mick Broxup looked at various combinations of players, seeking his best overall squad.

In the 65th minute a mistake in defence let a Southwold player through on goal and he slid the ball under keeper Ellis to bring the score back to 3-1.

This sparked a slight revival, which was well weathered by the Beccles defence.

In the 80th minute in the gathering gloom and rain, Hurren headed home another left-wing cross from Woods following a great move between Waterman and Fiske, who provided the killer pass.

Referee Gary High then abandoned the game with some five minutes remaining as the lightning appeared threatening.

Overall a good workout for all involved and some interesting choices to be made by Mick Broxup for the opening matches of the season.

Looking further ahead, next week sees matches of more significance as on Tuesday (August 19) Beccles take on Norwich City Youth in the annual Jack Constance Cup match, kick-off 6.30pm.

This is always a very entertaining game for this very old trophy and it will be preceded at 5pm by a game of mini-soccer involving St Benet's Wasps U8 sides.