Town welcomed bottom of the table Galleywood to Love Lane on Saturday for a very important league fixture. Despite Woods lowly position, Town knew they were in for a tough match having had 3 very close games against them last season. You also have to take into account Galleywoods start to the season which so far out of their opening 6 games had seen them pitted against 5 teams who will probably be battling it out for the league title this season, Rayleigh, Harold Wood, Kelvedon Hatch, Frenford and Boca so their start has been just about as tough as it gets so the lack of points understandable.

All of these facts were made crystal clear before the game but words such as breath and wasting spring to mind. With the usual raft of drop outs and no shows Town were left with just 13 players to choose from including new signing, 16 year old Lewis Headon.

The first 2 minutes of the game gave an early indication of how the game would pan out as Galleywood popped the ball about nicely and not one Town player touched, or even got close to the ball for the opening 2 minutes. Town then had their first touch – and promptly gave it straight back to Galleywood: regrettably a trend that was to continue for most of the remaining 88 minutes. The only surprising factor was that it took so long for Galleywood to score but after 25 minutes they did so and took the lead with a smart finish from the edge of the box 0-1 . The game continued along in much the same vein, with Galleywood dominant and Town very poor until the half time whistle went when the only positive was that Town were only one goal down, so not out of it by a long way.

Despite half time plea’s to “up it” Town muddled along in much the same way, and for some reason seemed completely unable to string two passes together or raise themselves from their slumbers so when Galleywood scored again following a defensive mix up, to go two up, it was effectively game over, bearing in mind that Town had so far not created one chance or had a meaningful shot at goal. Town were then thrown a life line when Polley was fouled in the penalty area for the clearest of penalties and he despatched the resulting spot kick into the bottom corner 1-2. Town now had their best 10 minute spell of the game and started to put Wood under some pressure, without really looking that threatening but were unable to sustain it and Galleywood then finally killed the game off with a third goal late in the game. Galleywood dominated the game, fully deserved their win and all credit to them but this was without doubt the worst Town performance I have witnessed for many seasons with not one player performing at anywhere near their capabilities.

Whilst I fully appreciate that no one has a bad game on purpose and everyone is ”entitled” to a bad game this was poor in the extreme and made worse by the constant bickering and moaning which is becoming both tedious and embarrassing.

Michael Hall came in for a deserved debut, and although new to this level of football he gave his all and if more players had matched his enthusiasm and effort we might not have ended up getting the thumping we did.

There is no player of the match this week as to award one would indicate that someone had a decent game which unfortunately was not the case.

El Col