Friendly Round Up

Not a great weekend for the clubs on my patch, but it is worth noting that these are all friendly fixtures and merely give the respective managers an opportunity to take a look at the full squad and try out tactics before the real business begins.

Championship outfit Bristol City were humbled by League Two side Torquay who put two goals past them at Plainmoor without reply, but according to local press reports, City's main strikers were all resting or injured.

League One new boys Wycombe were beaten by the mighty Braintree 2-1 with 'young' prospect and skipper Gareth Ainsworth getting on the scoresheet.

Down in League Two, Cheltenham were held 1-1 at Telford despite a 40 yarder by striker Jeff Goulding, but according to the Gloucester Citizen newspaper it was trialist Bagasan Graham, 18, who caught the eye. And the former QPR trainee has apparently done the business in all of the pre-season fixtures so far.

Bristol Rovers managed a 2-2 draw against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Friday with strikers Kayne McLaggon  and Scott McGleish both finding the net for the Gas.

Oxford are in the USA on tour at the moment and chalked up an impressive 2-0 win over Mass United in New Hampshire courtesy of goals from Alfie Potter and Deane Smalley.

Meanwhile Swindon have signed striker Alan Connell from Grimsby and left back Alessandro Cibocchi, 28, who has played in Serie B in Italy. He becomes Paolo di Canio's ninth signing of the summer and the fourth from Italy. Connell scored 29 times for Grimsby in the Blue Square Premier League last season, but has football league pedigree and has turned out for Ipswich, Bournemouth and Hereford among others and started out in the Spurs youth set up.

There are also rumours coming out of darkest, deepest Wiltshire today that di Canio is about to give a trial to 25 year old Algerian striker Mehdi Kerrouche who has been plying his trade in the United Arab Emirates second tier.

Hereford flew out to Spain for a training camp and so have seen little action outside of the duty free shop in recent days!