On Saturday August 15th the Beavers travel to the West Country to take on The Seagulls of Weston-super-Mare.
Last time out HRBFC suffered a humbling 5-0 defeat at the hands of Salisbury. Alan Dowson spoke to the club the following Monday expressing his disappointment but stressing the squad will make amends. Watch his full interview here.
It doesn’t get any easier as Weston emerged 3-0 victors at home to Chesham in their opening match of the season, with Jacob Jagger Cane, debutant Louie Derrick who was signed from Bristol City on a month-long loan, and Louis Britton all getting on the scoresheet.
The 6ft4 striker Britton scored 23 goals in the league and FA Cup last season, winning the August Player of the Month award for the National League South along the way.
The Seagulls picked up from where they left off last season, finishing sixth after a campaign which saw them in the top three from August to January.
Their promotion hopes however, were halted by Hornchurch in the playoff semi-finals, losing 2-0.
Over the summer the squad faced strong opposition in preseason, coming up against both Exeter City and Bristol Rovers, and they enjoyed a training camp in Portugal before playing seven matches in July.
Some notable additions include the return of striker Brad Ash after six years away. He was most recently with Bath City last season where he had seven goal contributions for a struggling Romans’ side.
His most impressive return in the National League South came for Weymouth in the 22/23 season, netting 18 goals in 46 games, earning him a move to Torquay where he followed it up with thirteen in the 23/24 campaign.
They have also added Ollie Hubert up front, a striker who scored 25 goals in his last two seasons in the Cymru Premier with Barry Town United, helping them to the playoffs in both 24/25 and 25/26. In 107 games for the club he scored 51 goals and assisted a further 14.
In other areas they also picked up winger Will Jenkins-Davies from Bath, who had 11 goal contributions in 21 league games, and added a mixture of youth and experience at centre-back with Archie Taylor and Sean Long.
In our two fixtures last season against the Seagulls we suffered defeats, losing 2-0 away from home and 1-0 at the Bev after a 96th minute header from close range.
We last won away at the Optima in 2019 but overall in ten matches away from home against Weston we have won five of them.
Let’s hope that continues this Saturday!
Up The Beavers!
Tickets for our home opener against Slough Town on the 22nd of August are now LIVE! GRAB THEM HERE!
By Jack Lonergan