Fleet duly completed a hat-trick of pre-season away wins against Combined Counties neighbours with this comfortable win against Sandhurst on Tuesday night. This followed earlier wins against Cove and Hartley Wintney.
Fleet boss, Mick Catlin now has one final friendly this coming Saturday (7th), at home to Eastleigh to complete his pre-season preparations, and then name his squad for the season opener away at Hastings the following Saturday.
Most of his squad have now put pen to paper for the coming season, the latest being mid-fielder, Gareth Keeping, who agreed terms following his debut game against Cove last week.
Keeping is likely to partner former Pompey central mid-fielder, Gary Connolly, one of Catlin's new signings from Bashley. And with wingman, Shaun Hale and Andy Sinton making up the central quartet, Catlin looks to have built up a strong core to his side.
And with new striker, Lee Paul already amongst the goals, hopes are high at Fleet for a strong start to the new league season on 14 August.
But with several places in the side still up for grabs, Catlin was keen to give all his squad a run-out on Tuesday night, with all seven subs given the chance to impress in this penultimate friendly.
The Fleet side dominated for much of the first half, but gutsy defending by the Sandhurst back-line kept the Fleet front-men in check. All this changed though in the 41st minute, when wingback, Ben Buckland scored from a narrow angle after great work up front by Paul.
After the break, Catlin changed things around bringing on his subs at regular intervals. Of these, youngster, Jason Smith came closest to adding a second for Fleet. But his powerful shot went inches over the target.
