STANWAY Rovers boss Kem Izzet is urging his young players to learn from the different challenges they face in pre-season.

The club’s bright friendly form continued with a 2-0 victory against Maldon and Tiptree on Thursday but they then lost 1-0 at Holland FC on Saturday.

Former Colchester United hero Izzet said the matches were like chalk and cheese in terms of their opposition’s style.

However, he hopes that in different ways, all the friendlies will be beneficial and help get his players ready for the new Thurlow Nunn League campaign.

“Saturday was a different test, compared to our other friendlies,” said Izzet, whose side play Colchester’s under-18s at Florence Park, Tiptree, tonight.

“It’s a learning curve and all part of our progression towards July 29 (when the season starts).

“Six or seven of our younger boys would never have encountered that level of physicality before, so it will have opened their eyes.

“That was really important for us and I hope the boys will have learnt from it.

“Colchester’s under-18s will be another footballing game and then we’ve got another physical match at Whitton United on Saturday.

“That game will determine whether we’ve learnt from the Holland match.

“If we make the same mistakes, then we haven’t learnt and the weekend game will have been a waste of time.

“But if we learn and improve on the things we should have done better, it makes it a very useful exercise. We wanted a mixture of games in pre-season because we’re trying to educate these boys about when they can play and when they can’t.”

In terms of Saturday’s defeat at Holland, Izzet felt his side failed to stamp their authority and said the performance gave him “food for thought”.

Keelan Sorrell scored the only goal in the first half.

“In the first half, I don’t think we competed enough,” said Izzet.

“Holland were always going to be a little direct and physical but in the first half we didn’t cope well enough with that.

“In the second half we were better, but we didn’t impose ourselves enough.

“We weren’t good enough.

“We didn’t get the ball down in the right areas or play it behind at the right times so it was a little disjointed, but it gives you food for thought.”

New signing and former U’s striker Jamie Guy made his debut at Dulwich Road.

The striker had recovered from a calf problem but took another knock to the same injury and will be assessed before tonight’s game.

“Jamie’s still not fit enough but I was very pleased with what he did,” he said.

“It was a real shame that he took another kick on his injured calf.

“We hope he’ll be fit to play tonight but we won’t take any risks because we don’t want him being out for another couple of weeks.”

Elsewhere tonight, Holland FC are back in action when they visit West Bergholt while Little Oakley have a home date with Thurlow Nunn League premier division new-boys Stowmarket Town.

The match had been due to take place at Stowmarket but has now been switched to the Memorial Ground (6.45pm kick-off).