Berkhamsted 3rds started the new season with a friendly against Staines. Berkhamsted started brightly and had the bulk of the play but, from a rare Staines attack, new goalkeeper, Dave Newey, had to make a couple of good saves.

Berkhamsted won a short corner and Tim Buckley’s shot was stopped on the line by a defender’s foot, however unfortunately John King was wide with the resulting penalty making the half-time score 0-0. Berkhamsted started the 2nd half very strongly and won another penalty from a Tim Buckley shot again hitting a defender on the foot, on this occasion Jim Watson scored. Shortly after this Trevor Whitehead followed up an attack to score and Tim Buckley took full advantage of the new self-pass rule to saunter into the D and score with a powerful shot into the corner. A sweeping left to right move saw Jim Watson score the 4th with a crisp shot and Brian de Mattos crossed from the right for Tim Buckley to score his second and Berkhamsted’s 5th. A bit of relaxation on Berkhamsted’s part let Staines back in and they managed to score two consolation goals in the last 5 minutes.

 Result Berkhamsted 5 Staines 2

Scorers Jim Watson 2 (1 pen), Tim Buckley 2, Trevor Whitehead