| It was the Evans and Shurville show at South Oxhey Playing Fields as Gadeside made light work of disposing of division two side Interwood as they began their season with the defence of the Birkdale Trophy. Gadeside romped past Interwood scoring nine goals without reply; the Evans and Shurville brothers scoring 7 of the nine goals. More amazingly, none of the goals were scored by the strikers. |
| Gadeside were dominant throughout putting the hosts under intense early pressure but Interwood were stubborn and repelled everything that Gadeside threw at them. Interwood enjoyed a couple of breakaways but were unable to trouble Adam Hills in the Gadeside goal. Rangers did finally break the deadlock on 19 minutes when Tariq Khan's shot was turned into his own net by a home defender. This goal was the signal for the floodgates to open as Gadeside went on to add another five goals before the break. Tom Shurville opened his account with a powerful drive from the edge of the box and soon grabbed his second when pouncing on a mistake by the goalkeeper. |
| Brother Ed Shurville was next on the scoresheet following up a Mitchell shot after Interwood had failed to clear a corner. On a rare forray forward, Gadeside failed to clear a high ball and the home strikers lobbed attempt looked to be heading in before Hills backtracked to save comfortably. Normal service was soon resumed as Jay Evans grabbed his first goal; smashing a left footed volley into the top corner of the net. Gadeside rounded off the half with the best move of the game, a flowing attack across the pitch saw Danny Everritt exchange passes with Ivanz Mani before delicately chipping the ball into the top corner. |
| Interwood came out pumped up for the second half and put Gadeside under some early pressure and had a great chance to pull a goal back but Hills saved well from a striker. Jay Evans enjoyed seeing a lot of the ball in the second half and it was he who made it 7-0 on the hour when he strode through and rounded the keeper. Matt Evans was on hand to head home a right wing corner from Ivanz Mani to make it 8-0. It was left to Jay Evans to complete the scoring and grab his hat-trick when he cooly finished past the keeper after being sent clear by John Wilkins. |
| A comfortable win for Gadeside who at times played some very nice stuff. But there was a lot of room for improvement heading into next week's league opener against Reed Rangers. |
| Adam Hills, Danny Everritt, Justyn Walcott, Matt Evans (Ben Higginson), Ed Shurville, Tom Shurville, Ivanz Mani, John Wilkins, Tariq Khan (Toby Zhou), Tom Mitchell (Daniel Brooks), Jay Evans |