NAHKI WELLS
Burnley rounded off their pre-season with a low-key Turf Moor defeat to a strong Espanyol side.
The final warm-up game saw Sean Dyche rest the players who endured 120 minutes in Thursday night’s thrilling European victory over Aberdeen, thus handing Nahki Wells a starting position.
And in a game overshadowed by the joint club record signing of Ben Gibson from Middlesbrough, second half goals from Didac and Darder proved enough to earn victory for the La Liga side.
Espanyol fielded arguably their strongest line-up ahead of the start of the La Liga season in two weeks’ time.
JONTE SMITH
Jonte Smith was on the bench as First-half goals from Nico Cotton and James Hammond helped Lewes make it five wins from five in pre-season with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Peacehaven, reports Tom Harper.
Lewes enjoyed the better of the first half and forced the Peacehaven goalkeeper into an early double-save to deny Luke Blewden and Nico Cotton after good play down the right.
Lewes took the lead after 42 minutes through Cotton, who sent a superb first-time curling strike from the right-hand side of the area across the goalkeeper and into the top corner after Omarr Lawson had seen his initial effort blocked.
Lewes doubled their lead two minutes later, as James Hammond ran onto a loose ball on the edge of the area and found the bottom corner with the help of a slight deflection.
After dominating much of the first half, Lewes started the second on the back-foot and conceded their first goal of pre-season within six minutes of the restart, as a Peacehaven player was left unmarked at the far post to steer a close-range effort past the previously untroubled Lewis Carey.
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