“We are close” Reid confident Fairford will be raring to go on opening day following Severn Sport Shield defeat
Fairford Town Co-Manager Jamie Reid believes his squad will be up to speed and complete in time for the start of the 2025/26 Hellenic League season after starting pre-season with two defeats.
Fairford went down 2-1 to Gloucester City in the first Semi Final of the Severn Sport Shield, following a late defeat on Saturday – but Reid admits he was pleased with his players’ effort on Tuesday night.
“We were much improved second half, I think with the quality Gloucester have, the fitness and the experience, it was always going to be a tough ask – but even though we worked hard for the 90 minutes and not just the second half, we were much better after the break,” said Reid.
“We were pleased to only lose 2-1, maybe, Gloucester had their chances but we stuck to the task and had a couple of chances ourselves and I think we have to be happy in the end.
I don’t think the result tells the full story of the game, because Gloucester had large parts of possession and they are a good side, playing two sides above us, playing on a good surface, so for a new team like us to keep it to 2-1 is very reasonable really,” added Reid.
Reid’s side will have all eyes on them in the Hellenic Premier this season, following the arrival of former Royal Wootton Bassett Town Manager Sam Collier, who will be Co-Manager with Reid this season – plus a number of players from Bassett and Highworth during the summer.
But by Reid’s own admission, they have had a tough start to pre-season, with Tuesday’s defeat coming after a 1-0 loss to Westbury United on Saturday afternoon but Reid believes that despite the tough start, he knows that his side will begin to show their quality in the remaining games ahead of the start of the season.
“We are happy with the progress made from the last few days, there’s lots to work on. It’s difficult [to learn too much so early on], I’d say we haven’t learned too much being honest.
Saturday was a bit of a farce really, with the pitch and the weather and having a few players away – it’s hard to really point out things we have learned so far, we are not quite there yet when it comes to a style and patterns of play, but that is what will start to form now as pre-season goes on and we get closer to the first game of the season,” said Reid.
As mentioned, Fairford have made waves on social media with the players they have signed, like Alfie Presley and Tommy Ouldridge from Royal Wootton Bassett Town – but they have also lost Jamal Lawrence, Charlie Holliday, Will Davidson and Tristan Haswell amongst others.
So with three weeks to go until the expected first Hellenic Premier fixture, Reid admits that the incomings may not be complete for his side.
“I would say we are 90% done in terms of a squad, but you know that something will always happen in pre-season, both positives and negatives – but there are a couple still on our radar and I think we are quite happy with the back five and our forward players especially, so if there was to be one area we could look to add it would be a midfielder,” said Reid.
“But as I said, we are close, but I would still be expecting to add one or two before the start of the season,” Reid added.
Bishops Cleeve take on Longlevens in the Severn Sport Shield Second Semi Final tonight, kick off at the TigerTurf Stadium; 19:45
Gloucester City will take on the winner on Saturday at 15:30; whilst the loser will play Fairford Town in the Third Place Play-off at 12
