Torrential rainfall on Friday led to the game being transferred to a very old and well worn 3G surface at Loughborough University that throughout the 90 minutes frustrated players from both sides with its unnatural bounces and lack of grip.

Missing Gavin Caines, Gary Sucharewycz, Jervaise Christie and Deon Meikle (all injured) ; Danny Elliott, Markelle Bailey and Ian Deakin (all still on vacation); Anthony Griffiths Jnr. (ill) and Anton Rennalls (wedding) it was a totally new look but under strength Eastwood Town who lined up for the game.

The Badgers started brightly and in their first attack new strike force TJ Nightingale and Grant Ryan combined well with the latter shooting into the arms of the Quorn keeper.

Almost instantly the Badgers found themselves a goal down! An overplayed pass from Quorn's midfield was comfortably cleaned up by Cameron Fearon who slipped as he attempted to clear, scuffing the ball straight to Quorn winger Nat Watson. The former Hucknall Town man needed no invitation to smash the ball past Sam Andrew from close range.

Thr rest of the first half was dominated by the Badgers who showed some neat passing moves to which they were unfortunately unable to put the final touch.

Both teams made numerous changes at half time - as is the norm this early in the new season - however, the pattern of play remained the same : Badgers dominating but squandering chances, Quorn looking dangerous on the break! Perhaps the best chance of the game fell to TJ Nightingale who shot straight at the Quorn keeper from 4 yards after a great knock back from young Josh Raven.

Assessing the work out Badgers' Boss John Ramshaw said, "Despite the difficult playing surface this proved to be a good workout for both clubs. Both teams played some neat, attractive football that entertained the substantial crowd. I suppose it is an anomaly of football that Sam Andrew, who never had a shot to save in 90 minutes, ended being the one who had to pick the ball out of his net!!

The first game with a completely new team is never easy but there were a lot of signs today that the squad will develop as they become familiar with each other. I was particularly impressed with the new centreback pairing of Simon Hore and Romaine Graham. In the second half we dropped Paul Riley in between them as a sweeper and it looked a very solid unit. Riles looked like he had played there all his life!"

Ramshaw continued, "The new strikers (Nightingale, Ryan and Evans) all looked lively and worked hard. Unfortunately they were all guilty of missing easy chances!"

Badgers' line up : 3-5-2 (halftime replacements in brackets)
Andrew; Hore, Fearon (Riley), Graham; Smith (Raven), Hanson (Ward), Troke (Sheridan), Gregory, Riley (Hollis); Nightingale (Troke), Ryan (Evans).