Town travelled to Mountnessing Boca on Saturday for a first round Bill Spurgeon Cup Tie and an astonishing 90 minutes of football. Armed with the tactical genius of WBB, who came up with a fiendishly clever plan they were confident; WBB, no doubt after several months of research and planning on his tactics board, came up with the notion that you can only play 11 players. Amazing stuff, and I wish I’d thought of it; so against his better judgment El Col dropped 3 of the original 14 he planned to start the game with leaving just the bare starting 11.

On a superb playing surface the game kicked off and it was very soon evident that the game would not end goalless as it was end to end stuff immediately. After 10 mins Town took the lead when Ben Polley drifted past a couple of defenders and hit a left foot shot from the edge of the box that squirmed under the keeper, 0-1. Boca rallied immediately and had much the better of the next phase of the game playing some delightful “pass and move” football and it came as no surprise when they equalised from a right wing cross that was headed home by the impressive Sener Suavi who went on to have a great day scoring 4 goals, 1-1. Boca then scored again after a ping pong session when Town failed to clear 3 mishit shots in a row which bounced off Town defenders before finally landing to a Boca player on the edge of the box who scored with a thunderbolt, 2-1. It was still end to end stuff but Boca then scored again with a rather fortunate goal from an intended left wing cross that sailed over keeper Chris Neal’s head in to the top corner, 3-1. Town were not at the races and were quite frankly absolutely awful and it looked like Boca would run up a cricket score when, almost unbelievably, Town scored 3 goals in the next 15 minutes to go in at half time, 3-4. First of all Polley showed his quality when he controlled the ball instantly and hit an instant strike from 20 yards into the bottom corner, 3-2. It was now all Town – an amazing turnaround: and this time it came as no surprise when they equalised and when they did what a goal it was - the ball was half cleared by Boca to the onrushing Mark Neal who from fully 25 yards (35 according to him after a couple of lagers) he curled the ball into the bottom corner leaving the Boca keeper helpless, 3-3. In case you think I have been on the Riojas and that was a typo I can confirm that it was quite definitely Mark Neal who scored from 25 yards!!!!!. Just before half time the marauding Stuart Dallaway was tripped in the penalty area for a clear penalty which Polley coolly converted for a personal first half hat trick and Towns 4th goal, 3-4, and the score at alf time.

The second half kicked off and Town went back to their lackadaisical ways and Boca dominated the opening 10 minutes and deservedly equalised after 10 minutes, 4-4. A few minutes later Boca were awarded a highly dubious penalty when Grandy was adjudged to have fouled a Boca player who literally run straight into him when he was grounded. But the ref’s decision is final and Boca duly scored from the spot to go 5-4 up. Town rallied and put some pressure on the Boca goal and the newly introduced Jeater, back after a few weeks out with injury, started to influence the game almost immediately with some strong runs down the right wing. However, Boca scored again when Sener Suavi found himself in acres of space wide on the right hand side of the 6 yard box and he hammered the ball home, 6-4. To their credit Town didn’t throw the towel in and got themselves a life line when Jeater, went on “a Walcott”, accelerated past a coupe of defenders before scoring an excellent goal from a tight angle to make it 6-5. Town huffed and puffed after that without really looking like getting the equaliser and the game finished an incredible 6-5 to Boca.

Although this sort of game will definitely bring the crowds back it has to be said that Towns defending was woeful and they can’t really expect to compete at this level if they go away from home, score 5 and still lose the game!!! As well as the 11 goals that were scored, both teams missed a further hatful of chances – the game could have quite easily ended 10 each, not a score line you would expect to see at this level of football.

Player of the match this week surprisingly doesn’t include any defenders in the nominees and is between Ben Polley, Mark Neal and Matt Macedo who came on as sub after 20 minutes and performed well. Young Matt just gets it.

El Col