Aveley 1 Sungate FC 1

A late strike from Sungate made sure Aveley’s winning start to pre-season end at Rush Green, Romford.
But Millers’ boss Rod Stringer used the game more as an trialist match with several players trying to stake a claim for a team place come August 16 when the season starts.

The starting line-up saw the welcome return of Wayne Vaughan and the striker looked in top form with several close efforts just missing the target in the first half.

Stringer changed things at half time, and several other trialists were used and it was one of them that opened the scoring.

The Millers’ switched play well and worked the ball across to Jason Kane who lobbed the ball over the onrushing Sungate keeper and into the net.

Aveley continued to dominate play but with five minutes left Sungate levelled the scores with little time for the Millers’ to strike back.

But Stringer will be happy with the workout and will hope to continue to show signs of progress when they host Diss Town on Saturday at Mill Field, with the usual 3pm kick off.