Cambridge United make the short journey across town to play Cherry Hinton FC this evening (6.30pm) in a friendly match at the Recreation Ground. Admission is free.

Chairman George Rolls, a former player and manager of Cherry Hinton, agreed to the match to help the Kershaw League side mark their centenary year, and it will provide an additional opportunity for trialists to impress.

One player sure not to be involved is defender Anthony Tonkin who suffered a groin problem in the first half of last night's win at Ely and was substituted as a precaution.

"He had a groin problem last season, which has healed, and it's the same groin but a different injury," explained Gary Brabin. "When he felt it last night we took him off and he's being assessed and monitored by Greg Reid."

With most of the squad playing just 45 minutes in their first game of the new season, Courtney Pitt replaced Tonkin last night and played the rest of the game, while young first year defender Darryl Coakley was the only outfield player to complete 90 minutes.

"I made him skipper for the night and he was solid," said Brabin. "He's primarily a left-back but he's very much a Gary Ablett type of player, who used to play for Everton and Liverpool, in that he's a big, tall left-back who can also play centre-half.

"He's had a good pre-season and we felt it would do him good to play 90 minutes last night."

Although the trialists are likely to play again, and may be joined by another goalkeeping hopeful, Brabin plans to select different sides to balance the demands of the forthcoming fixtures.

"It will be a different line-up tonight but a lot will depend on how people are feeling after last night," he confirmed. "We've split people into groups depending on who's playing in what games, and we're going to try to manage it so that by the end of pre-season they will all have played the same amount of minutes in games. We're trying to be fair to everyone."

On the trialists, he added, "We're hoping to be a bit clearer about them at the end of the week and they'll all be playing tonight, barring injuries. They're all aware of the situation that we're not in a position to offer them anything at the moment, but they're hopeful of showing us what they can do in case anything changes."

Finally, Brabin confirmed that striker Mark Beesley is making great progress following his hip operation last season: "He's done all the pre-season work but we don't want to throw him into the games too early. He came back in fantastic condition and he's well ahead of schedule and doing great, but I don't want to push him too soon."

Admission:
Free of charge

Directions:
The Recreation Ground is on the high street in Cherry Hinton, almost opposite the Cambridge Building Society on Mill End Close, between Colville Road and Applewood Close.

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