Town welcomed Hannakins Farm to Love Lane on Saturday for a second round Bill Spurgeon Charity Cup tie. As is usual these days there was a raft of absentees including Lodgey who was in Barcelona getting his phone nicked, (or maybe in secretive talks; Puyol is getting on a bit), Graham Jeater (topping up his tan) Chris Neal (injured), Mark Brereton (due back early December) Nicky Evans (injured – due for a scan December), Michael Hall (working), Rob Flight (working) and Lee Humphrey who, having pledged his undying love and football career to Ongar Town FC the week before, obviously found something much more appealing to do one week later and I presume his phone was also nicked as there was no notice given.

So after a bit of last minute shuffling Town took the field in testing conditions including a gale force wind, driving rain and hail stones. Early signs were good as despite kicking into the gale force wind Town settled quickly and played some of the best “pass and move” football they have played for weeks with Polley and Headon combining well going forward and Dave Martins electric pace a constant threat. Town then suffered a setback when Headon, who had started superbly, pulled something (first time for everything) in his foot and although he soldiered on bravely his effectiveness was drastically reduced. A few minutes later, a cross come shot deceived “The Cat” and there was an eerie silence as the ball sort of drifted over the his head into the top corner for a strange, rather fortunate goal – 0-1. Farm now started to apply some pressure and had the better of the next 15 minutes during which time the cat got a kick in the face when he bravely spread himself to prevent another goal attempt. Town then conceded a penalty when Ready was adjudged to have deliberately handled a ball that he saw at the last second when it came through a group of players and skidded at a vast rate of knots on the sodden turf 2 yards from him !!! – quite obviously a deliberate handball then and Farm converted the penalty to go 2 up. To their credit, given the poor run of results recently, Town didn’t drop their heads and pushed forward in an effort to get back in the game. A few minutes before half time Town were awarded a free kick, 22 yards out. Polley stepped up and curled the ball beautifully into the top corner leaving the Farm, keeper helpless 1-2. The whistle went for half time and although behind Town were playing OK and didn’t deserve to be trailing after a fairly even opening 45 minutes.

With the conditions in their favour Town started the second half and straight away put Farm under pressure, a trend that was to continue for the entire second half, as Farm defended heroically and did their own version of Custer’s last stand. Town attacked in droves and the threw everything at Farm in a desperate search for an equaliser. Mark Neal, who had an outstanding game, found himself unmarked but headed wide from 5 yards out. A few minutes later he hit the post with another header and then Wiggy fired high wide and not very handsome from a tight angle. It was now virtually non stop pressure and Farm barely got out of their own half but when they did counter attack Andy Allen, Ready and Mark Neal looked very comfortable at the back so the cat was well protected and except for a couple of pass backs didn’t touch the ball in the second half. Still Town pushed forward and it looked like they would get a deserved chance to equalise from the spot when Dave Martin using that electric pace mentioned earlier just got to a Polley through ball an instant before the Farm keeper who caught him and Dave ended up in a heap on the floor. Regrettably, from Towns point of view, the only person at Love Lane that day, including the Farm team and both of the capacity crowd that had braved the conditions, that didn’t think it was a penalty was the man that mattered so play continued with a goal kick. This seemed to finally deflate Town, who came to the conclusion that this just wasn’t going to be their day, and the last 10 minutes didn’t produce any chances of note so Town went out of the cup, rather undeservedly it has to be said. So in summary a decent, if not brilliant performance, which on the day, given a bit of luck, could have seen Town progress to the next round but it just wasn’t to be. My sincere thanks go to Dan (Motty) who not only stepped in to be sub at the last minute but also ran the line for us in possibly the worst weather conditions for years.

Player of the match this week is between Mark Neal who defended resolutely and made some driving forward runs, Ben Polley who looks to be getting some form back and Dave Martin who’s pace allied with an exceptional work rate gave the Farm defence a hard time. Dave just gets it this week.

El Col