Town played host to a very young and very fit Maldon Town Res on this evening in their second pre season friendly. For various reasons Town were down to a bare 11 again and matters were not helped when Wiggy felt his hamstring twinge in the warm up.

Town started reasonably well and the opening phase of the game was a fairly even, end to end affair, with both teams playing some neat attractive football. Maldon hit the bar and Town were denied by a couple of last ditch tackles, just when it looked like they might open the scoring. However after a bright start Town found it difficult to cope with Maldons high octane game and as a result of being shut down quickly suddenly found it difficult to string 2 passes together, were caught in possession repeatedly and gave the ball away with alarming regularity. Maldon took control and it came as no surprise when they took the lead after 25 minutes, after a defensive mix up, 0-1. A few minutes later they added a second when Towns midfield and defence both went missing and left a gap down the left wing that you could have parked the QE2 in. Chris Neal got a hand to the resulting shot but couldn't prevent it crossing the line, 0-2. So half time arrived with Town 2 down and to be honest looking pretty ramshackle.

The second half kicked off with a change in formation and dare I say, a change ion attitude, and again after a 10 minute spell when it was fairly even Town took control and played some delightful attacking football. After 60 mins, Town pulled one back when Polley latched onto a through ball and drilled home a powerful left foot drive 1-2. Unfortunately Wiggy had to come off leaving town with 10 men. Despite this It was all Town now and a few minutes later Polley sprung the offside trap, stood the advancing keeper up and coolly slotted the ball home 2-2. Still Town pushed forward and they, and Polley, were rewarded with a 3rd when Jeater flew down the right wing and slid in an inch perfect cross to Polley who converted from close range, 3-2. Polley then completed the scoring on 85 mins when he sprang the offside trap again and clinically despatched Town's, and his personal, 4th goal, 4-2.

Overall this was an excellent match with both teams contributing and playing some attractive football. Town were poor in the first half but excellent in the second. There were some notable performances not least from young Brad Merrick but today's player of the match goes to 4 goal Ben Polley who's clinical finishing was simply outstanding.

El Col