After a well-battled first half, Micah Jebbison’s close-range strike and James Taylor’s well-placed penalty, either side of a Dunkirk header, gave the Blues a one-goal lead. The visitors looked to fight back in the second half, but with a lack of clear-cut chances, neither side could add to the first-half scoreline.

CFC managers Jake and Jack Wood took charge of this pre-season friendly and fielded a CFC and academy heavy squad, alongside first-team players James Shaw, James Taylor and Ryan Head, of whom may have been lacking game time.

The Blues came out firing and thought they had opened the scoring only one minute into the match. Shaw’s exceptional footwork took him past the defender and in a position to find Josh Lawe inside the box, which he did, and Lawe converted, but the linesman judged the forward to be in an offside position.

However, Jebbison opened the scoring two minutes later – after Shaw’s dinked through ball was latched onto by the forward and whilst holding off his man, he was able to slot the ball comfortably inside the keepers near post.

After a spell of pressure, Dunkirk inevitably equalised in the 13th minute, when their Number 8 whipped an in-swinging corner deep into the box and their Number 4 rose highest to thump a header past the staggering Marcus Coombs.

Dunkirk’s Number 8 was involved once again in a chance mid-way through the first half, this time it was a free-kick that was taken from just outside the 18-yard box, but sadly for the visitors his curling effort dipped slightly too late and flew just over the bar.

It was Long Eaton that soon found themselves ahead in the 23rd minute through a penalty that was won excellently by the weaving footwork of Jebbision. Taylor stepped up and struck the penalty into the bottom right corner, way out of the visiting keepers reach.

Jebbison had a golden chance to make it three, as a blistering run took the winger to the by-line and forced an unorthodox cross-shot that took the keeper by surprise and glanced off the crossbar before eventually being cleared away by the opposing defence.

Shaw could also have grabbed the Blues’ third mid-way through the second half, when Sachin Matharu’s delicate layoff allowed the forward to unleash a venomous strike towards the top right corner of the goal, however, it was saved fantastically by the fingertips of the visiting keeper.

Substitute Ryan Bache displayed some excellent awareness to latch onto a through ball to get past the Dunkirk defence and into the box, where he found himself one on one with the keeper, although the subsequent strike was palmed wide of the far post superbly by the Dunkirk shot-stopper.

Dunkirk’s Number 15 had the visitor’s best chance of the half with only four minutes left to play. A free-kick won down the right 30 yards out was taken quickly by the visitor’s substitute as he looked to catch Mitchell Leivers off his line, but it came to no avail.

Next up, Long Eaton United travel to the New Manor Ground to face Ilkeston Town on Saturday afternoon in the Blues’ final pre-season friendly before the start of the 2021/22 season.