CAPTAIN Luke Cray believes Ardley United will be primed and ready for their season opener against Thatcham Town in five days’ time.

United begin their Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division campaign at the Berkshire side on Tuesday.

After finishing last year with five successive victories, Paul Davis’ side are hoping to use that momentum ahead of the 2016/17 season.

Reece Bayliss scored in Tuesday’s 1-0 pre-season victory over Hanworth Villa, following on from the six he put past Buckingham Athletic in a 9-0 rout.

While the north Oxfordshire side have also hammered Old Woodstock Town 7-1, they have gone down to defeats at Hook Norton and Tring Athletic.

Despite a mixed set of results in pre-season, which will come to an end on Saturday at home to Bedford Town, Cray is feeling positive.

He said: “Pre-season has been up and down for us.

“We’ve had games where we’ve dominated, and then games where we seemed to lose focus when we were down to the bare bones,

“But everyone is getting minutes, a couple of the lads are feeling it but generally we are all getting our fitness levels to where they should be.

“By the start of the season we should all be ready to go.”

Bayliss’s tenth-minute goal proved the difference against Hanworth, but they could have had more.

Chris Jackson, Joel Meade, Ade Talabi, Cray and Carl Tappin all went close.

Davis said: “I felt we dominated large periods, which was pleasing considering we knew they would be a strong physical side.

“They didn’t get a shot on target in the game while we had eight, so to only score one was rather unfortunate.”