Pre-season friendlies 2026-27

[Royals and Racers]

Assuming everyone is fit and we don’t sign someone new very quickly I think I’d be looking at

JP
Dokes PoC Ward Roberts
Wing Rino
Lisbie Stokes Osho
Brown

For Luton

Bench something like

Stevens, Dorsett, Fraser, Savage, Marriott, Lane, Kyeweera

For Luton. That’s still leaving out Abrefa, Ahmed, Hicks, Beacroft who have all had good preseasons/experienced players in Abrefa

If Marriott fit he should start.

[Hound]

Assuming everyone is fit and we don’t sign someone new very quickly I think I’d be looking at

JP
Dokes PoC Ward Roberts
Wing Rino
Lisbie Stokes Osho
Brown

For Luton

Bench something like

Stevens, Dorsett, Fraser, Savage, Marriott, Lane, Kyeweera

For Luton. That’s still leaving out Abrefa, Ahmed, Hicks, Beacroft who have all had good preseasons/experienced players in Abrefa

If Marriott fit he should start.

He’ll have missed most of the preseason. And I’d rather have more mobility, energy and pace up top personally. Good option from the bench though

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Assuming everyone is fit and we don’t sign someone new very quickly I think I’d be looking at

JP
Dokes PoC Ward Roberts
Wing Rino
Lisbie Stokes Osho
Brown

For Luton

Bench something like

Stevens, Dorsett, Fraser, Savage, Marriott, Lane, Kyeweera

For Luton. That’s still leaving out Abrefa, Ahmed, Hicks, Beacroft who have all had good preseasons/experienced players in Abrefa

If Marriott fit he should start.

He’ll have missed most of the preseason. And I’d rather have more mobility, energy and pace up top personally. Good option from the bench though

Using the 'missing most of preseason logic', why have Roberts as a starter?

[Hound]

If Marriott fit he should start.

He’ll have missed most of the preseason. And I’d rather have more mobility, energy and pace up top personally. Good option from the bench though

Using the 'missing most of preseason logic', why have Roberts as a starter?

Yeah fair - I’d be happy enough to have Dorsett start there for that same reason.

[Crowbar6753]

A fair few of us have mentioned the balance in midfield and that the Wing/Savage partnership didn't really seem to work. So far it's been Rinhomota paired with Wing so maybe this tweak is having the desired effect on the balance?
Defiantly a shift to a more attacking style of play and long may this continue Up the Ding!

[Beaulux]

Wing very much in the shopwindow with performances like today.

[windermereROYAL]

Wing very much in the shopwindow with performances like today.

He`s been in the shop window for the last two years for goodness sakes.

[Clyde1998]

Will be interesting to see how we approach the Bromley game, given it falls in slot usually reserved for the final pre-season game when you'd play your strongest XI ahead of the league season.

Aside from Stevens starting in goal, I'd imagine we'd have as strong a side possible for that one.

[West F]

If Marriott fit he should start.

He’ll have missed most of the preseason. And I’d rather have more mobility, energy and pace up top personally. Good option from the bench though

Using the 'missing most of preseason logic', why have Roberts as a starter?

He is the only left back at the club.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Appreciating the friendlies won’t be an entirely consistent representation of what we will look like in the league proper, but LR has got us playing some nice football. More than happy to give him a clean slate, and very much looking forward to this season.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Will be interesting to see what happens if we don't start well. I have no idea how Luton are looking, but on paper it's a tough first fixture. Hopefully we don't all lose our heads if they beat us.

[Sutekh]

Will be interesting to see what happens if we don't start well. I have no idea how Luton are looking, but on paper it's a tough first fixture. Hopefully we don't all lose our heads if they beat us.

Luton have just signed West Ham and NI striker Callum Marshall, for the usual undisclosed fee that everyone in the lower leagues signs anyone these days, so certainly will be meaning business - but then they’d be one of the better clubs anyway so we certainly need to hope everyone’s up for the first home game, especially as it’ll likely set the tone in the minds of the floating fans on whether to commit more regularly or not.

[stealthpapes]

Will be interesting to see what happens if we don't start well. I have no idea how Luton are looking, but on paper it's a tough first fixture. Hopefully we don't all lose our heads if they beat us.

You new around here?

A slow start ain’t the end of the world, not really, but it’ll be toxic for the current management.

[Silver Fox]

Will be interesting to see what happens if we don't start well. I have no idea how Luton are looking, but on paper it's a tough first fixture. Hopefully we don't all lose our heads if they beat us.

You new around here?

A slow start ain’t the end of the world, not really, but it’ll be toxic for the current management.

Of course for people to lose their heads they'd need to have got them back from when they lost them at the end of last season!

[Hound]

Leam needed a good preseason after the end of last year and tbf we’ve had one. Even though it’s relatively meaningless does feel it’s bought him a bit of time

[Mr Angry]

If this pre-season has done nothing else other than shown the value to Leam of needing to play Wing further forward than he used him last season, then the pre-season can be deemed to have been a massive success!

It has been a long while since a pre-season result has given the fan base as much positivity as the 3-0 away to Charlton last weekend.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Allegedly, there is an outbreak of illness amongst the remaining staff

[Brogue]

Allegedly, there is an outbreak of illness amongst the remaining staff

Well Leam is full of shit so he could do with losing some.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Scabies, amongst other things