Cheltenham Cougars’ first scrimmage against Division 1 Reading Wildcats.

After a lengthy off season extended by lockdown, Cheltenham were finally back onto the pitch for a preseason friendly against Reading Wildcats.

During lockdown, Cheltenham used weekly webinars to help with theory training and developing plays. Overtime, along with the ELA COVID-19 guidelines, training went from 6 per group to 30 per training to help the Cougars get prepared for an exciting new season.

Cheltenham travelled to Reading with a mixture of experienced players and debutants in the team.

With the new rules without a face off to begin the match, the fixture was used to trial various ways to begin possession to start a quarter and post goal play.

In the first quarter, Cheltenham’s attack, Dan Martin, Drew Houlbrooke and Max Biddlestone had early attempts creep wide or saved by Reading’s keeper, all whilst trying to overcome the home team’s high pressure defence.

Reading withstood the early onslaught and scored three goals using their quick counters & plays to beat Cheltenham’s back line consisting of Matt Parkes, Gareth Crow, Tarik Crooks and James Lloyd, who held well to keep the score respectable with good settled defence helped out well by the midfield.

In the 2nd quarter, Cheltenham started to play smartly yet couldn’t beat Readings keeper, but finished the first half with momentum on getting back into the game. Reading meanwhile increased their lead by two.

After a half time team talk on how to approach the game with the momentum shown just before the half ended, Cheltenham got a goal back with Max Biddlestone finding captain David Lennox who scored low on Reading’s goalkeeper.

Shortly after withstanding some Reading offense, the defence held out to give the hardworking Cougars another opportunity to attack, where goal scorer Lennox this time assisting to Dan Martin with a feed to crease, who confidently placed it past the keeper to get Cheltenham back into the fixture.

The momentum and chemistry in the Cheltenham team was beginning to show well in the midfield consisting of experienced players in Pete Smith, Kel Monstad, Si Benyon, David Lennox and Richard Beattie, and Gloucestershire university players Ethan Lee and Scott Griffiths, who put in hard work to make it difficult for Reading; a highlight being Beattie’s fantastic pick and taking a big collision for the team, to set up a shot a goal.

After Reading got their sixth, Cheltenham retaliated quickly with the third goal coming from Biddlestone. In a man up situation, Lennox quickly fed Drew Houlbrooke on crease who held onto it well and found Biddlestone where he beat the keeper.

Cheltenham won the quarter but were not done and scored a fourth. Unfortunately the whistle blew as soon as Biddlestone shot, disallowing him a 2nd goal and shortening the deficit by two.

Understandably, fatigue began to show in the final quarter and Reading took advantage by scoring three more in unsettled play. However, Cheltenham’s defence proved their worth holding out in 2 man down situations and not allowing Reading to score, clearly bringing what they learned over summer training into practice.

A slow clear from Lloyd to Tarik, created a break who found Biddlestone where he fed to Simon Benyon cutting down the middle, unfortunately hitting the crossbar with a powerful attempt – the ball still yet to be recovered.

The midfielders were not deterred and consistently gave it everything to win back the ball, particularly when riding the oppositions clears.

This was rewarded with Lennox disrupting a clear from Reading, quickly passing to Monstad whom initiated contact before dumping to Biddlestone; rather than shooting, he drew the slide and found Drew Houlbrooke who calmly placed it past Reading’s keeper to score Cheltenham’s fourth and a well deserved team goal.

Final score: Reading 9-4 Cheltenham

A solid attempt in a first friendly of preseason against a top side, where there’s signs of quality and room for improvement to carry onto the next friendlies on 19th September where the 1s are back in action at home against Milton Keynes and the brand new 2nd team hosting neighbours University of Gloucestershire.

Goalscorers:

David Lennox; assisted by Max Biddlestone
Dan Martin; assisted by David Lennox
Max Biddlestone; assisted by Drew Houlbrooke
Drew Houlbrooke; assisted by Max Biddlestone

Man of the match - David Lennox

Non-stop running from end to end of the pitch by the Cheltenham captain and key component to all 4 goals that Cougars scored.

Nominations also to: Matt Parkes, Drew Houlbrooke, James Lloyd, Richard Beattie and Dan Martin.