Ayr United 1 - BWFC 1

BWFC: Bogdan, Mears, Mills, Knight, Alonso, Chung-Yong, Andrews, M Davies, Petrov, K Davies, Eagles


BWFC Subs: Lynch, Riley, Alonso, Ream, Cisse, Vela, Pratley, Wylde, O'Halloran, Eaves, Blakeman


Last week I blogged about the possibility of OC playing five midfielders with a lone striker.  Yesterday before the opening match with Ayr I predicted OC would go with a 442....he played 5 midfielders (albeit in a 4411).  Here was the starting team:

Bogdan

Mears    Knight    Mills    Ricketts

CYL    Andrews    Mavies    Petrov

Eagles

SKD

Now the rumors were that a French club are after signing N'Gog, and N'Gog wasn't featured because of this.  OC later said that he simply wasn't featured due to picking up a slight knock to the back, but watch this space.
Early in the game Mears and CYL were able to link up well, which is great news, it is good to see CYL playing again and that he has a good partnership with Mears.  While on the left side Petrov and Ricketts saw very little of the ball.
Weirdly in the second half it was the left of the field that saw the most play, with Alonso and Wylde providing most of the attacking play.
Bolton created a lot of chances from set plays with Mills and CYL coming close with headers.  It was the home side however that had the best chance to open the scoring (isn't that always the way with Bolton, we can be so controlling, only to concede first).  Mills seemed quite comfortable at the back, apart from the short header back to Bogdan that almost gave Ayr the opening goal.  I was surprised to see Knight start ahead of Ream, but by all accounts he did OK and Ream featured for the second half anyway.
Wakey Wanderer said that Riley and Alonso may feature and they did. Alonso opening the scoring, see his goal here.
A few minutes later Bodgan was replaced by Jay Lynch, who was only on for approximately 2 minutes when out of the blue Ayr got a goal back.


Not a bad result for the first game back after the summer break, and after all, preseason is about fitness, not results.  That being said, hopefully the performances of the players will improve game after game along with the fitness.