Town made the trip down the A13 to take on Canning Town on Saturday eager to extend their recent run of 2 winning performances. In heavy traffic, most of it making its way to the big game in the local area (some of it even went to West Ham) Town were thoroughly entertained on route by young Brad Merrick’s rather unorthodox style of driving. Brad clearly feels he can use whatever lane he wishes irrespective of whether it’s the right one and it’s down to everyone else to get out of the way!!! - The Dodgem driving images in my rear view mirror (that’s the thing you look in to see what’s behind you Brad) will keep me smiling for many a long day. There were 2 changes from the previous weeks win against Manford Way; Lee Humphrey had to work so Wiggy came in to replace him and Chris Neal took his place again between the sticks in place of last weeks stand in keeper Rob Newman. AKA “The Cat”.

Town started really well and played some neat and tidy football pinning Canning Town back and enjoying the majority of the possession without really creating any clear cut chances. After 20 minutes, against the run of play, Canning Town had a headed goal disallowed for offside. This seemed to remind Town that they couldn’t afford to relax, even for a minute, and they stepped up the work rate and continued to press forward. After 25 minutes Nicky Evans who had again started the game very well had to come off with an injury and was replaced by Bradley Mills. Bradley got himself straight into the game and played one or two probing passes before opening the scoring after 38 minutes. Davey Armstrong, held the ball up and fed it back to Brad, who neatly sidestepped a challenge before smashing a right foot shot into the top corner from 25 yards out for a wonderful goal – 1-0.

Half time arrived a few minutes later with Town still one goal to the good. More of the same please and don’t lose concentration was the feeling at half time.

The opening phase of the second half decided the game as Town took the game to the opposition. With Andy Allen doing a superb holding job in midfield Wiggy, Brez, Bradley Mills and Nikki Love (who replaced Brad Merrick) poured forward in support of Ben Polley and Davey Armstrong up front. Town added a second when Davey Armstrong did superbly down the left wing and ended up, defying gravity and his advancing years by crossing the ball with an acrobatic overhead kick for Wiggy, who was now getting forward at every opportunity, to convert from close range – 2-0. Town were now rampant and a few minutes later they scored again – Andy Allen, who was absolutely outstanding on the day, allowed himself a nose bleed inducing sortie into the oppositions “final third” and picked out Ben Polley, left side of the penalty area with a quite exquisite pass – Polley’s touch and finish was clinical as he slid the ball wide of the advancing keeper from the edge of the box – 3-0. Town should now have seen the game out by retaining possession and taking the heat out of the game but that’s rather boring so they decided instead to take their foot of the pedal and allow Canning Town to launch a spirited and determined fight back and throw everything at Town. To their credit Canning Town refused to throw the towel in and they pulled a goal back with a neat header from Michael Smith and could have perhaps scored again soon afterwards but missed a couple of good chances, but after a shaky spell the addition of Dave Martin, who replaced a cramped up Wiggy, to the overworked defensive trio of Jeater, Mark Neal and Ready shored things up and the final minutes were seen out and fortunately, from Towns point of view, the Canning Town goal proved to be just a consolation. The final whistle went and Town made their way home back down the A13 with a very important, and deserved 3 points and Brad Merricks passengers looked forward to the rally home and Brad’s unique Lewis Hamilton impersonation.

Summary: another good all round team performance with several notable performances; need to learn to “see games out” by keeping possession as we could have thrown away a lot of excellent hard work for 75 minutes in the last 15. Player of the match this week is Andy Allen who performed the holding midfield role to perfection.


El Col