HELSTON Athletic will take on Plymouth Argyle on Saturday for the Blues’ first pre-season game of 2018/19.

Pilgrims manager Derek Adams’ side, who finished seventh in EFL League One last season, will play in front of what is expected to be a bumper crowd at Kellaway Park for the 3pm kick-off.

Blues manager Steve Massey said: “It’s going to be a great exercise for us as we’ll probably be chasing the ball for maybe about good 75-80 minutes of the game, but that’s what pre-season is all about.

“It’s great to have Plymouth Argyle down. It’s an occasion for the club as well as for the players to play against some pros.

“The surface will be good and hopefully the weather forecast will be good and a good crowd and it promises to be a great day for the club.”

Half of the Pilgrims’ first-team squad will take part, while the other half will head to Tavistock’s Langsford Park for another friendly at the same time, with both squads to be supplemented by their development and youth team players.

Argyle chose to make the trip down to Helston as part of their ten-game pre-season programme after Adams took a shine to the facilities on offer at Kellaway Park.

“The seeds were sown when Argyle came down the first time [in the league] and played against Helston,” Massey said. “Derek Adams was at the game with Kevin Hodges [Academy director] and they were really impressed with the surface.

“He [Adams] said to Paul [Hendy, Helston chairman] ‘the facilities are great, the clubhouse, the pitch is excellent and if you want us to come down for pre-season I’ll bring the team down here.’

“We left it late last year, but this year it was set in motion in February time that they were going to come down here.”

Blues on the road again

Helston will face another away trip in the first qualifying round of this season’s FA Vase.

The Blues were also drawn away last year, losing 3-2 at Camelford, and have been drawn away against Falmouth Town in the last two seasons in the Walter C Parson Cup.

The match with Tavistock will take place at Langsford Park on Saturday, September 1, with the winners set for a trip to Liskeard Athletic or Bovey Tracey in the next round.

“We don’t seem to be able to draw ourselves out first with a home tie, even in any cup competition,” Massey said. “We keep seeming to be having to go on our travels and so is the case here as well.

“Its a tough ask absolutely, but I thought we did well in the game when we went up there last year.

“It would be nice to have a home tie, but we’ll go up to Tavy and we’ll give everything up there.”