Halstead kick-off pre-season programme

5:20pm Tuesday 15th July 2008

Halstead Town were beaten 7-0 in their opening pre-season friendly against Conference National side Rushden and Diamonds.

Both sides fielded new faces and trialists in the match, which was played out at a rain-soaked Rosemary Lane.

Town manager Jody Brown said: "It was an excellent workout and our best period was probably the first 30 minutes of the second half in which we kept a good shape, didn't allow any goalscoring opportunities and were able to play forward and hurt them, winning a number of free-kicks around their box.

"We made some naive mistakes but this was us after five sessions as opposed to them who had been in since mid-June.

"We can take so many positives from the game, not least the fact that for 70 minutes our fitness was ok."

Halstead take on Needham Market tonight in another pre-season friendly at Rosemary Lane, 7.45pm kick-off.

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