By Ash Loveridge
Karl Nash and Josh Loveridge declared themselves happy as Dursley and Sharpness shared a 1-1 draw at the Rec.
On a sun-kissed evening, the large crowd was treated to a competitive match, with Dursley boss Nash blooding a number of u18s and Sharpness manager Loveridge running the rule over a number of new faces and giving opportunities to five sixteen year-olds.
Brad Hewer opened the scoring for the Sharks, but Aaron Nash levelled the game, leaving Nash pleased with Dursley’s opening game ahead of the new Gloucestershire Northern Senior League season: “It was a good run out for my boys and we added a few new faces into the the mix and tried a new system.
“We suffered a few first pre-season nerves to start with, but we grew into the game, arguably had the better chances – it was also great to see a number of u18s come into the side.”
Nash takes his side to his former club Brimscombe on Wednesday, 7.30pm.
Pictures by Matt Bigwood
Sharpness boss Loveridge declared himself satisfied with the game at Dursley, he said: “It was good to get back to it at Dursley.
“It was an enjoyable and worthwhile game. We had a lot of young players on the pitch which was great to see and they all did well.”
Loveridge said the pre-season plans are going well: “We’ve had three excellent training sessions so far and theree were a lot of positives to take out of the game at Dursley, but obviously the main thing is fitness at this stage.
“We will train on Tuesday and Thursday this week and then we go into our second friendly next Saturday at home to Shortwood.
“We have got a couple of new faces through the door and I’m still looking to get a couple more in which I’m hoping will be sorted in the next couple of weeks.”
