Oakham United's third pre-season friendly yesterday evening (Weds) was an all-Peterborough and District League clash with Stamford Belvedere of Division 1 as the visitors.

Before the game, player-manager Stewart Lambie had said that he viewed the game as a chance to look at more of the younger players. They could be knocking on the first team door in the coming season.

Stamford Bels made the early running and took the game to Oakham.

After two minutes the Bels number nine smashed a shot against the crossbar, which seemed to be a statement of intent.

A minute later Bels rifled a long range shot at the Oakham goal and generally had the better of the early exchanges.

After ten minutes Oakham were awarded a corner but were not able to capitalise on it.

Shortly afterwards Stewart Lambie was called into action and did well to save as the ball bounced awkwardly.

Towards the middle of the first half Oakham began to create more openings and had a corner and free-kick in quick succession.

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Bels were quick to retaliate and Lambie again did well to save at the expense of a corner.

Alex Brockbank shot over the bar but the deadlock was broken just after the half hour mark.

Dan Jenkins pressurised the Bels' defence into making a mistake and followed up by netting what was to be Oakham's only goal of the match and the highlight of the first half.

Before the interval Oakham had another couple of free-kicks but no further shots on target.

Oakham started the second half in much the same vein as Bels had started the first half, with a shot hitting the side netting and another going over the bar.

There followed a couple of narrow misses and some desperate defending by Bels.

At this point Oakham were combining better, but their finishing was off target.

Then Oakham seemed to go off the boil and allowed Bels to get back into the game.

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Midway through the second half the Bels number twelve found his way through the Oakham defence and scored the equaliser.

Bels were again on target a few minutes later, but Lambie was equal to the challenge.

Both sides were going for a winner and Bels came closest when Stewart Lambie managed to save a shot with his fingertips, pushing the ball onto the bar for a corner.

The match ended with honours even. Both sides were on top for periods of the game and a draw was a fair result.

Oakham did not create too many clear-cut chances but the game was a good run-out for the youngsters and the purpose of pre-season games is to get the players fit.

The first game of the season will be played at Parson Drove on Saturday, 27 July, kick-off 10.45am.

This is a Groundhop match, so a large crowd is anticipated. There will be a contingent of Oakham supporters travelling and expectations for the new season are high.