Hampton 0

Brentford 4

Hampton and Brentford played an entertaining friendly in front of a healthy crowd of 902 at Hampton's Beveree Stadium on Friday night.

Brentford played well in patches to see off a Hampton side that battled hard without any luck.

Brentford scored two goals in each half with Robert Taylor again showing why he is still attracting attention from other clubs with two goals in the first half, the first when he took advantage of slack play in Hampton's defence.

Of the new Hampton players on display Steve Croxford looked very strong at the back, while Barry Forshaw went close twice for Hampton.

Chick Botley made full use of the game using 20 players during the game as he looks forward to Hampton's season in the Ryman League's Premier Division.

Hampton improved in the second half but still could not find a way through the Bees' defence. Brentford's fourth came from a penalty in the 77th minute. Ex-Hampton man Derek Bryan was clattered by Darren Powell; both players got up grinning hugely at each other and FIFA referee Ray Lewis was all smiles too as he pointed to the spot as the crowd also joined in the laughter - truly a game played in excellent spirit by both sides. The result of the game was totally immaterial.

q Hampton have a new recruit for the ground crew, Osimanda, who joined the club last week. Osimanda immediately took to her role in the New Stand and is already paying dividends.

She has been recruited to scare away pigeons who were nesting under the roof of the stand and causing a mess. Osimanda is of course an owl - not a real one either, but a lifelike model!

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.