Town's Bournemouth tester (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Town's Bournemouth tester

8:00am Tuesday 31st July 2012 in Blue Square Conference South

JASON Bristow is looking forward to Basingstoke Town’s next pre-season game – a home friendly against League One AFC Bournemouth at the Camrose tonight (kick-off 7.45pm).

The Dorset club have pledged to bring a strong side to Basingstoke and Bristow says that the match will be a good test for his team.

“We are all looking forward to the game,” the Town manager said. “It’s always nice to play a professional club and they have told us that they will be bringing a strong side.

“It will be a great test and hopefully a chance to get on the ball a bit more. Hopefully we will get a big crowd and put on a big performance for them.”

Bournemouth could feature former Brighton Hill Community College pupil Ryan Case, who signed a professional deal at the club earlier this year and scored in his side’s 2-1 defeat to Poole Town on Friday night.

Bristow was pleased with the way his side performed in their Friday night game, a 1-1 draw with Totton.

“We knew it would be a good workout and they are a good side, especially going forward,” he said. “They caused us problems in the first half.

“They have probably got one of the best wide players in non-league in Mike Gosney and their right winger is also pretty handy but I thought Nathan Smart dealt with Gosney quite well and Toby Little was excellent.

“As the game went on we came into it more and I thought we dominated the second half without creating many clear cut chances.”

The one sour note from the evening was a serious injury suffered by Totton’s Nathaniel Sherborne following a challenge from Chris Paterson.

Bristow said: “I thought Chris won the ball fairly and it was just one of those things. It’s just a really unfortunate incident and Sherborne is one of the nicest lads around so it’s horrible to see something like that happen.”

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here