Town made the trip to Faces FC on Saturday and with both teams getting off to a slow start to the season and low on points it was important to get something out of the game. Rather disappointingly between Friday evening and Saturday morning Town went from picking a team from a squad of 16 players down to just 10 when numerous players dropped out for a variety of lame excuses, sorry I meant reasons. Various Town players are currently missing games on a regular basis for a variety of reasons and maybe they need to decide whether or not they actually want to play for the club or not, if they don’t, fine, we’ll get by without them; if they do, they need to stop letting their teammates and the club down. My thanks at this stage must go to Dan Mott who stepped into the breach at late notice to help out and put in an admirable performance.

Still, on a positive note, at least we were left with 11 players who wanted to be there and prepared to put in a performance for the club. Two products of the 1970’s youth academy, Colin Polley and Steve Neal tossed up to see who would embarrass themselves by being a sub – Steve, who had bored me rigid on the trip to the game about the possibility of Spurs going top of the league, lost, so he warmed the bench and you could see the blood drain from his face every time a Town player went down injured.

On an excellent playing surface the game kicked off and after the usual early sparring process Town went ahead when Chris Headon picked out Graham Jeater with an exquisite first time “eye of the needle” pass; Jeater took the ball on goalwards, drew the advancing keeper and slid the ball home with aplomb (haven’t used that one this year and felt the need to get it in), 0-1. Faces responded, started to pass the ball well and put the Town defence under some serious pressure which the defensive trio of Dave Martin, Lodgey and Ready dealt with superbly. They were breached just the once by a long through ball but Chris Neal reacted quickest and made a brave interception to clear the danger and got a bang on his head for his troubles. In the midfield Andy Allen and Mark Neal worked like Trojans and thwarted numerous moves before they reached the danger areas. After 20 minutes Town went further ahead; Ben Polley turned a Faces defender inside out and played in Graham Jeater with a clever pass; In all honesty I thought Jeaters first touch had taken him a little wide – how wrong I was proven to be when he hit an absolute thunderbolt of a right foot half volley from a tight angle that flew into the top corner before anyone had blinked for another goal of the season contender, 0-2. Still Faces continued to press but Towns defence stood firm and apart from a few crosses Chris Neal didn’t have much to do. Town then went three up when Polley floated a free kick over the head of the Faces keeper, who had strayed off his line, 0-3. It was important to get to half time with a clean sheet but this didn’t happen as three minutes before the break Faces scored with an absolute screamer from fully 25 yards that flew into the top corner giving Chris Neal absolutely no chance, 1-3. The half time whistle went shortly after.

More of the same please but try to keep the ball a bit better were the orders of the day and when the second half started possession was fairly even and the first 15 minutes passed without any major incident. Faces were then reduced to 10 men when one of their players, who had already been booked in the first half took a dislike to Mark Neal - Mark, fresh from attending choir practice that morning, was shocked to have his hair pulled in full view of the ref and the Faces player was shown a red card. Faces reaction to this setback was magnificent and despite being reduced to 10 men they put the Town defence under great pressure for the next 10 minutes and were rewarded with a goal to reduce the deficit to just one, 2-3 and at this stage Faces were definitely on top. Town got a grip, started to keep the ball better and started to look very dangerous on the counter attack. Young Brad Merrick, complete with some impressive Bambi on ice impersonations (buy yourself some studs Brad!!) started to get on the ball and started to look like the very good young player we know he is. Town could have added more goals; First of all Jeater went down the right wing and pulled the ball back for Polley who, ala Gazza at Euro 96, failed by the length of a stud to slide the ball in to the empty net. A few minutes later Polley hit a fierce shot from the edge of the box that the Faces keeper couldn’t hold and Jeater, following up, shot wide when he probably should have scored. You began to wonder if Town would regret these missed opportunities but the answer came a few minutes later when Polley picked the ball up wide left and played an inch perfect through ball with the outside of his foot for Jeater which dissected the Faces defence; Jeater rounded a defender and then the keeper but was then fouled for a clear penalty but due to some excellent refereeing he was allowed to play on and slide the ball into an empty net to complete his hat trick, 2-4 and 3 much needed points in the bag.

Although there were notable performances from a number of players, in particular the back 3 of Ready, Lodgey and Dave Martin this week’s man of the match is Graham Jeater who, on this form, takes some stopping.

El Col