Town welcomed title contenders Mountnessing Boca to Love Lane on a glorious sunny afternoon. Chris Neal returned from sunning himself in Egypt , Graham Jeater and Mark Neal returned after suspension, as did Headon after his problems the previous week.

Straight from the kick off it was obvious Town were really up for this one and after just 3 minutes Jeater showed what we had been missing when he went on one of his trademark “roadrunners” leaving defenders in his wake before sliding in a ball for Polley who’s powerful shot went over the bar from 12 yards out when he probably should have done a bit better. The game settled down with possession fairly even. The Town defence, of Grandy, Lodgey and Dave Martin were not seriously threatened and dealt with any attacks comfortably, the midfield 4 of Sibbo & Mark Neal and young fledglings Brad Merrick & Matt Macedo contested every ball and the new look front 3 of Polley, Humphrey and Jeater served early notice of the carnage they were to inflict later on in the game with pace and movement to burn. After 20 minutes, Boca carved out their only clear cut chance of the day from open play but Chris Neal denied the Boca striker with a quite magnificent save. Ten minutes later, Town were awarded one of the more obvious penalties of the season when Lee Humphrey, one on one with their keeper, was fouled from behind. Polley sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot to score his 32nd competitive goal of the season with ease, 1-0. The remainder of the half was fairly even with neither team creating any chances and when half time arrived things were looking promising although, given events this season, anything less than a 10 goal lead at half time makes me nervous!!!!

As expected when the second half kicked off Boca came at Town in an effort to equalize but they were again met with stiff resistance from the Town midfield and defence who were superb and we even had the rare sight of Polley tracking back and making a tackle – things were looking good indeed. Then against the run of play Boca equalized when Alan Woods headed home powerfully from close range from a corner, 1-1. Town now wobbled a bit for a few minutes, but although Boca now had the better of the possession they never looked like threatening the Town goal. With the Town midfield and defence providing a very solid base Town now pushed forward and with the pace and movement of Jeater and Humphrey up front being fed by the some mightily impressive Polley passing Town were all over Boca and it looked just a matter of time before their attacking was rewarded. First of all Jeater was played in when Mark Neal cleverly dummied a pass from Polley and Jeater homed in and fired home left footed from the edge of the box, 2-1 . A few minutes later came a goal of real quality – Jeater came to meet a pass, spun the defender and clipped the ball over the last defenders head for Humphrey to run onto – Humphrey coolly lobbed the keeper from 25 yards, 3-1. Still they weren’t satisfied and much to the detriment of the managers ever increasing blood pressure they went in search for more goals !!! and were rewarded with a 4th goal when Polley, again played in Lee Humphrey who steadied himself before “placing” the ball in the bottom corner, 4-1. Boca were now shell-shocked and Town could, and maybe should, have scored a couple more goals when Lee Humphrey, supremely fed in by Mark Neal, fired agonizingly wide and the same player “fizzed” one just wide from long distance. To cap it all off we were then treated to Mark Neal hitting a dipping volley from fully 25 yards that the Boca keeper was forced to save. The whistle sounded and rounded off a superb team performance and my, how the beer tasted good.

Player of the match is impossible because virtually every Town player could put in a valid claim, so there isn’t one this week as the team should take a collective “pat on the back” for an excellent performance.

On to next week and the team will do well to remember that one swallow doesn’t make a summer.

El Col