The friendly between the first team and the under 23's was not a classic - but as an in-house match, that was only to be expected. The U23's lined up in green shirts and white shorts, while the first team wore black training kit.

The first quarter of the match was pretty even, the U23's giving as good as they received in terms of general play and tackling, however neither Danny Boness or Dan Purdue were overworked in their respective goals. Indeed, almost the most interesting event of the first 10-15 minutes was a visit by a fox on the grass bank by the Bedford End, though the visit was short-lived.

The first clear chance came in the 25th minute when some sharp interpassing by the first team left Matty Newman clear in the inside right channel, and he made no mistake in opening the scoring, shooting across Purdue into the far corner.

After this, the senior side began to take a little more control, though the youngsters were still as competitive. Neither side could fashion a chance to score in the rest of the half, leaving the half-time score at 1-0 to the first team.

For the second half, both teams made a number of changes, and the U23's made more during the second half, as several players who were replaced at half-time came back on later and finished the match.

The second half started much as the first half had gone, with both sides working hard to nullify each other, so that chances were at a premium for the first team, and pretty well non-existent for the U23's, as on the few occasions they did breach the first team defence, the attack was halted by an offside flag.

In the last quarter of the match Laste Dombaxe and Stephane Ngamvoulou got control in the middle of the field, so the younger Greens were having to defend and consequently were unable to put much pressure on the first team's defence.

In the 79th minute the U23s found themselves 2 down. A short goal kick was not moved downfield quickly enough, giving Ricardo German the chance to rob a defender, and move into the penalty area. The execution, when it came, was almost a carbon copy of the first goal.

In the 82nd minute, the two goal lead was increased, when Romario Jonas met a Lee Chappell corner with a header across goal that went in off the inside of the far post. A couple of minutes after this, the U23s created their best chance of the evening, but the shot, when it came, was blocked by the first team trialist keeper's leg.

Both teams will have found this a useful workout.