Town welcomed run away league leaders and title favourites Kelvedon Hatch to Love Lane on Saturday on a bright but freezing cold afternoon. After a couple of early morning pitch inspections the game went ahead and Town were forced into two late changes when Brez was held up on the infamous M11 and Lodgey was stuck in Amsterdam (on business he assured me !!!) so both had to be relegated to the bench.

The writing was on the wall as early as the 3rd minute when Chris Neal in the Town goal was forced into an acrobatic save to deny a deft Hatch volley. Hatch put Town under pressure for the opening 15 minutes and Town struggled to make any impact going forward and couldn’t hold the ball up to relieve the pressure. Hatch got their reward when a scuffed shot from the edge of the box was spilled by Chris Neal and a Hatch player had the easiest of tap ins from 3 yards out - 0-1. Town now settled down a bit and played some decent stuff without looking threatening and then suffered a set back when Hatch scored again to go two up: there was definitely a suspicion of offside but nevertheless Towns defence stood rooted to the spot whilst a Hatch player reacted quickest and slid the ball sideways for another tap in from 3 yards out – irrespective of whether it was offside or not aren’t you taught at under 8 level to play to the whistle? – very disappointing 0-2. A few minutes later, as if it wasn’t already, it was definitely game over when Hatch scored a third from a looping header 0-3. Town didn’t drop their heads and then had a good spell for the reminder of the half and could in fact have scored when Jeater rounded a couple of defenders but his shot was well saved by the Hatch keeper who pushed the ball away for a corner. So Town went into the half time break 3 goals down but it has to be said there hadn’t been a great deal to choose between the two sides and the truth is that Hatch had created 3 chances and scored 3 goals.

Headon was replaced by Brez at half time. The second half was a strange rather subdued affair played in the middle third of the pitch; possession was reasonably evenly matched although to be fair it must have been difficult for Hatch to motivate themselves knowing the game was won. To their credit Town didn’t drop their heads and continued to at least try to play football but Hatch were in control and Town didn’t create a worthwhile effort on goal until late on when Nicky Evans hit the post and just failed to scramble the rebound in. Hatch added 3 more goals late on in the game to complete a miserable afternoon for Town. The final whilst went and Town retired to the bar to drown their sorrows. I am still hopeful we can get seven in the second leg to go through on aggregate!!!!

Whilst there can absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Hatch were comfortably the better side on the day and thoroughly deserved their win the score line was definitely flattering and on the day Town didn’t deserve to go down to such a heavy defeat; I can’t remember Hatch missing a clear cut chance in the game and they ended up scoring 6 goals from 6 chances, 2 of which we had handed to them on a plate. Town have to put this one behind them and concentrate on next week’s very important game against Galleywood.

Player of the match this week is Dave Martin who performed superbly at the back.

El Col