This weekend sees the start of July, which means that St Ives Town begin their pre-season programme.

Spalding play in the Northern Premier League Midlands, and like St Ives have only reported back for duty within the last week, so the match will be the ideal opportunity for the teams to get some game time under their belts for the first time since the season closed at the end of April.

Since the close of the previous campaign, Ives manager Ricky Marheineke has been busy assembling a squad ahead of the new season with the core from last year being retained.  Key players such as Jonny Edwards, Jonny Herd and Jordan Williams – a trio which scooped honours at the end of season awards – will all be with the Ives for the forthcoming campaign.  They could all feature in the opening friendlies along with others including Fernando Bell-Toxtle who has signed from Royston Town.

The Tulips finished third in the Northern Premier League Midlands table last season, and progressed to the play-off final only to lose out to Halesowen Town.  Despite losing Stefan Broccoli to Cambridge City, they have made a number of impressive signings including striker Dan Sweeney, who the Ives know all about as he was formerly with Bromsgrove Rovers.

So, the season may be a good few weeks away yet, but if you fancy getting back into it and seeing the start of pre-season, then get down to the Quattro-Tech Westwood Road on Monday evening. The details together with admission prices are as follows:

ST IVES TOWN v SPALDING UNITED

Monday 3 July 2023.  Kick-off 7:45pm

Admission:

Adults:  £6.00

Under 16s (accompanied by an adult): FREE