The R’s squad were expecting to play on grass but it seems that there was a communication breakdown somewhere along the lines as when they turned up, the pitch was artificial. As a result Gary Waddock named a starting eleven consisting of young players, trialists and new signings rather than first team regulars. In the second half Alan McDonald and Tony Roberts were even asked to make up the numbers off the bench, with Roberts bizarrely ending up playing upfront.

The game itself was therefore pretty much an irrelevance, Adam Czerkas provided the highlight of the match with his goal to level things up after the home side had taken an early lead but Sorrento went in at half time 3-1 up and added two more in the second period to make the final score 5-1.

Last summer we played on a dog of a plastic pitch in Ibiza which many within the club believe contributed to the long term injuries suffered last season to the likes of Kevin Gallen, Marc Bircham as well as pretty much finishing off Dean Sturridge so this time around it seems that no chances were taken. If it hadn’t been for the fact that hundreds of fans had spent a lot of money going out to Italy to watch the games, I would guess they wouldn’t have bothered playing at all.

Gary Waddock explained the situation to the official website.

"It was meant to be a grass surface so we've had to change the team accordingly,” he said "so although we got beat, there are reasons for that and this game wasn't taken too seriously at all.”

We play again on Friday night against San Antonio and we can only hope that the conditions will be as expected for this one. We already had a slim looking pre-season campaign with only five scheduled matches, now with this one all but written off you start to wonder if the players will be at full fitness for the start of the season. 

simon@qprnet.com