Last week Beccles Town completed two friendly games.The first, on Tuesday composed mainly of reserve players with a sprinkling of first team hopefuls, took on a full-strength Halesworth Town side and fought out a creditable 0-0 draw.

Beccles Town completed two friendly games last week in their build-up to the new season.

On Tuesday a squad composed mainly of reserve players with a sprinkling of first team hopefuls, took on a full-strength Halesworth Town side and fought out a creditable 0-0 draw.

Some good creative soccer was played by Beccles but poor finishing was the order of the day.

Alan Remblance had to withdraw following a collision with the home keeper.

It was later revealed he had a rib injury which meant he couldn't play in the first team fixture the next night.

The game on Wednesday against Lowestoft Town Reserves was an altogether different story, with football of a very high quality being played by both sides.

In the first half Beccles definitely had the edge and outplayed the young Trawlerboys all over the field with some performances

that augur well for the coming season.

In particular, the renewed central defensive partnership of Matt Fiske and Sam Barham were totally untroubled by the Lowestoft attack, while the midfield run by Lee Pike and Craig Peters saw them stroke the ball around at will and probe for position with some authority.

In the absence of Alan Remblance, Kevin Waterman partnered Anthony Martin up front and both showed a great appetite to worry the Lowestoft defence and were unlucky not to score.

Several changes were made at half-time to give an outing to several other squad members which made little difference to the excellent way that Beccles had played.

The turning point of the game seemed to be the denial of what looked a certain penalty for Beccles, and the later stages saw Lowestoft dominate probably due to their fitness levels as they had been training several weeks before Beccles.

Overall, Mick Broxup was very pleased with the two games and felt he had learned a lot about his probable squad.

Training resumed on Tuesday, with a further friendly against Southwold planned for yesterday.

Next week sees training as usual on Tuesday and a further friendly against an Oulton Broad side (kick off 6.30pm).

Looking further ahead, the following 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.

Thursday, August 21 is the opening game of the Anglian Combination Premier Division with Beccles Town journeying

up the A146 to take on newly-promoted Loddon United, kick-off 6.30pm.

The club hopes see their loyal supporters at all of these games.