KNOWLE kickstarted their pre-season preparations with a dominant 4-0 victory against Step Four side Boldmere St Michaels, writes George Revell.
A brace from Talib Copeland and further goals from Odane Barnes and Zak Parsons ensured the Robins made a winning start to pre-season at the Amber Arena.
Boldmere play one step above Knowle in the non-league pyramid but the Robins showed no signs of a summer hangover ahead of the club’s first-ever Step Five campaign in 2026/27.
Copeland’s persistence paid off after just eight minutes as he took the ball from Boldmere defender Aris Christophorou and calmly slotted the ball home from close range.
And Knowle doubled their lead six minutes later when Barnes latched onto a lofted through ball and outmuscled former Cyprus under-19 international Christophorou before powering past Jonathan Brown in the Boldmere net.
The Robins almost added a third in the 17th minute when Brady Floyd cannoned an effort against the crossbar from Copeland’s through ball as Brown reacted quickest to keep out Barnes’s follow-up.
Boldmere eventually forced Knowle goalkeeper Matt Horton into action with seven minutes of the first half remaining as he rushed low to his right to deny Jack Burgess at a free-kick.
Knowle introduced new signing Lucas Edwards for a debut from the bench at half time while Boldmere made four alterations of their own soon after the restart.
However, Knowle kept the tempo up as Copeland doubled has tally for the night with a curling effort from 20-yards out which left Brown with no chance after a corner from the right bounced around the box and fell invitingly into the striker’s path.
And Parsons completed the scoring just past the hour mark when debutant Edwards played a neat pass into the goalscorer who drove a low effort into the bottom right corner.
Knowle are next in action against Solihull Moors on Tuesday, July 7 with kick-off at 7.45pm at Hampton Road.
