Kenilworth Wardens complete unbeaten preseason with victory over Coventry Polonia
By James Smith
27th Aug 2022 | Football
Kenilworth Wardens put four past friendly rivals Coventry Polonia to complete their unbeaten preseason run before the Coventry Alliance Premier gets underway.
Polonia - who conceded 20 past across three separate defeats to Wardens last season - started the game with the form that has seen them win all of their warm up games this summer, forcing makeshift keeper Guy Pearson into two early saves.
After 15 minutes Kenilworth found a rhythm. Luca Valle played the ball out to 18-year-old debutant Harrison Wright whose first time cross fell perfectly for captain Andy Legg to lift over Polonia's keeper Karol Klecz to open the scoring.
Wardens continued to keep patient build up and were rewarded on 26 minutes where once again Harrison was played down the right. His cross fell for Luca Valle to shoot from the edge of the 18 yard box with the deflecting turned in by Stan Moss.
Within seconds of the restart Polonia pulled a goal back in sublime fashion as from kick off Ruben Rodrigo Voica lobbed Wardens' keeper landing an inch under the crossbar.
On 35 minutes Wardens restored their two goal lead. A high press saw Moss recover the ball before playing an inch perfect pass into Louis Beck, to run past the defenders and calmly slot into the bottom corner.
Wardens were 3-1 up at half time and made seven changes, and the changes showed after the restart when Polonia played some great football and drew one back with Alex Kiselow tapping in from two yards out.
Wardens once again restored the two goal lead when player-manager Eamonn Richards' corner was met by debutant Dalius Cesnakevicius, whose bullet header went straight into the top corner.
Despite the remainder of the play being even and Polonia having better spells of play for long periods, Polonia were indebted to Keeper Klecz who pulled off a string of saves- including three one on ones from Alex Nwafor and shots from Jack Thomas, Guy Pearson and Dan Twigger to keep the game at 4-2.
Speaking after the game Richards said: "I want to thank Polonia for the game and compliment them on their improvements over the off season.
"They are a great group of guys run by truly nice and proper football men and I'm sure they'll do well in division one this year. We always look out for their results and looking forward to playing them in the future.
"We've finished preseason unbeaten with three wins and a draw to our name, which is obviously nice. Having (Harrison) Wright, (Dalius) Cesnakevicius, (Stan) Moss, (Jack) Thomas and (Alex) Bradley come into the side as additional players really helps the quality and depth of this team.
"Obviously there is stuff to work on, I wasn't pleased with periods of the game, both on and off the ball, but some of the play was brilliant and I think after an adjustment period of bedding players in we can really compete next year, looking forward to our first game next week against Coventry Phoenix."
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