Alton manager Kevin Adair was delighted by his side’s performance after they won 5-1 at home to Whitehill & Bordon in a friendly at Anstey Park Enclosure on Saturday.

Adair felt the match was a useful exercise for his side as they look to build momentum in 2026.

“We haven't done much in the Christmas period because it has not fallen well for us for training,” said Adair.

“It was a case of getting out there and blowing a few cobwebs off.

“We were able to work on a couple of things, because Whitehill & Bordon brought something slightly different.

“We knew that that would happen – that was what we were looking for – so I’m really pleased with it.

“There were four or five lads who didn't have to be involved, which gave us an opportunity to bring four lads in from the under-18s who all played a minimum of 25 minutes and impacted the game when they came on and looked pretty comfortable in and around the group. That’s another positive.”

Alton led 2-0 at half-time and Adair was happy with how his side performed in the second half to seal the win.

“Performances have been good recently but we felt we needed to get a goal quickly after half-time because we had missed two big chances in the first half to kill the game off,” said Adair.

“We got the third goal and then we looked to get on the front foot with the youngsters coming on – they wanted to impress and they did exactly that.

“We had a few experienced lads holding things together, which was pleasing. It was good to get together as a group.

“When the game gets to the 70 minute mark in a friendly it's a bit stretched and it's not really relevant to how a proper game would be played, but even so we kept creating chances and did not concede many chances.

“The goal we conceded was a 35-yard strike in the top corner, but I would have liked us to have defended it better before that. We've got to be critical of certain things – and that was probably not good enough – but the rest of the game was pretty professional.”

Adair’s squad is currently light on numbers, and Alton’s manager is hoping to add new recruits if possible.

“We are on the edge of filling a squad each week,” said Adair.

“We can go to the under-18s and use those players, but in certain areas we're just a little bit light.

“We're trying to do stuff about it, but there's only so much you can do. You can talk to people and if people show an interest great, if they don't you move on and worry about who you have got, not who you haven't got.”

Next up for Alton is a home game against runaway Combined Counties Premier Division South leaders Cobham on Saturday, January 10 (3pm kick-off), and while Adair is expecting a tough match he wants his side to go into the match with confidence.

“We've got a lot to do but this friendly gave us a good platform to build off,” said Adair.

“It gave us some areas we want to work on.

“We'll look to train positively and go into the game on Saturday feeling confident.”