I PICKED the side but I let Dunny take charge as the next stage in developing his coaching.

Unfortunately for him, he was all set to give his team talk at half-time when he was required to treat one of the linesman who had a bit of hamstring trouble and might not otherwise have got through the game.

The match itself was a useful exercise in as much as it gave the players who needed it 90 minutes of football. However, I felt we should have done better.

Jason Welsh didn’t see much of the ball up front as we just could not keep it for long enough.

The Bristol City kids are playing all day and no one likes to take on a classy bunch of really enthusiastic 18-year-olds, but I was disappointed that we lacked shape.

Time and again, Craig Curtis and Adam Corcoran, who both did well at the back, were required to make last-ditch tackles.

City ran out convincing winners and their management team were delighted that we didn’t try to kick them off the park. In fact, because of the good pitch and facilities, they said they would be happy to come back and play us again in a pre-season friendly.

Paul Wood has now left us due to work commitments and Dan Thompson has moved on to Highworth where he will get more games.

Our Hartpury players were also unavailable as they were playing on the same day, so Josh Digby got a start.

His dad (Fraser) rang me because Josh hasn’t been getting a look in at Thatcham and he has come along to training once. This game cropped up so he had an opportunity to play and he will continue to train with us while we have a look at him.

The Thatcham Town being off on Saturday was a nuisance as I thought that match and the Monday night game away at Beaconsfield would really show us how far we have moved forward.

I have no injury worries ahead of Beaconsfield except for Russ Courtney, who was a passenger in a car crash last week and had a bit of whiplash.

He was nearly okay on Saturday so I am hoping he is fit because the same team we have been putting out lately, the lads who saw off Slough 4-1, deserve to start.

It will be a tough game and I see they have signed Mark Nicholls from Uxbridge, but I am much happier to be playing them now than in mid-December when this game was originally scheduled.

It’s a match between two in-form sides and we will scrap and hope to get something out of it.

We have always been an entertaining side, but now we have added a bit of resilience.