Town made the trip to Rayleigh Town on Saturday eager to maintain their recent fine run of form. After a horrendous hour and a quarter journey down the delightful A127, during which Ready tried, rather unsuccessfully to conceal a hangover, the manager finally arrived last and late and was instantly admonished by Lodgey making in depth observations such as “if you leave on time there’s no traffic” – not only is this factually incorrect, it is also tactically very naïve as the starting eleven had not yet been announced. Chris Neal, Mark Neal and Lee Humphrey were all missing so Rob “The Cat” Newman deputised again between the sticks and Dave Martin and Bradley Mills came into the starting 11. Nicky Evans, Brad Merrick and naïve manager admonisher Lodgey filled the bench.

Kicking down the slope Town were very slow out of the blocks and Rayleigh had the better of the opening few minutes during which Jeater, Ready and Dave Martin were called upon rather more than they would have hoped to be this early in the game. Town then settled down and got the upper hand and put the Rayleigh goal under pressure. Town could have scored three but were denied on two occasions by the excellent Rayleigh keeper and once by the pitch. First of all the lively Niki Love skipped past a couple of defenders but was denied by the Rayleigh keeper who was quick off his line and managed to smother Niki’s shot. A few minutes later Polley “rolled” a defender on the edge of the box but his left foot curler, which was destined for the top corner, was again excellently saved by the Rayleigh keeper. Niki Love then broke through again and looked likely to score but a cruel bobble resulted in his shot ballooning over the bar. At the other end Town’s defence was stretched by Rayleigh’s twin strike force and they did well to contain them to an extent that “The Cat” was not seriously called into action. Town continued to press but couldn’t break down the Rayleigh defence down and it looked like the first half would be goalless; but then just 3 minutes before half time Town took the lead. Town worked a short corner, and Polley ghosted past a Rayleigh defender into the box, where he was fouled for a fairly obvious penalty. He dusted himself down and planted the resulting penalty into the bottom corner, 0-1. The half time whistle went a minute or two later.

Town knew the second half would be difficult as they were defending against the slope and from past experiences we knew how tough this can be. Rayleigh kicked off the second half in determined mood and almost as expected Town came under pressure but rode the storm, settled down and started to play some decent football. Brad Mills and Andy Allen, who was superb again, controlled the central midfield area allowing Towns front three of Polley, Davey Armstrong and Niki Love licence to attack at every opportunity. Wiggy succumbed to an old injury and was replaced by Nicky Evans who settled into the game straight away and with him and Brez pushing on from the flanks Towns attacking options looked strong. Brad Mills hit a fierce dipping drive from 25 yards out that the keeper did well to push away to safety and at the other end “The Cat” Newman made a neat save when he held onto an awkward bobbling shot to deprive the Rayleigh forwards who were on the look out for him to spill it. Brez then got a dead leg and was replaced by Brad Merrick who again was straight into the game, getting on the ball and passing it well. With 15 minutes left Rayleigh threw everything at Towns defence and Town responded by taking off a front man in Davey Armstrong, who had given another all action non stop display, with Lodgey who went into his normal position at the back in an effort to reinforce the defence. Still Rayleigh poured forward and bombarded the Town defence which responded in superb style and with one exception when the post came to Towns rescue they defended brilliantly. Then in the dying minutes Town made the game safe with a second goal. Nicky Evans won possession of the ball and fed it out to Niki Love, wide right on the half way line. Despite plea’s to “hit the corner” he made a bee line down the right wing, evading a couple of tackles before squaring the ball to Polley, 10 yards out – Polley's first time shot was saved but he pounced on the rebound, waltzed round a defender and smashed the ball home gleefully from close range, 0-2 and game safe. The final whistle went a couple of minutes later and Town celebrated their fourth win in a row.

Summary: Another good team performance and further evidence of an improving squad. In truth there wasn’t a great deal to choose between the two sides on the day but Town just about edged it overall and deserved the 3 points. Player of the match this week is a tough call but Brad Mills who was outstanding, just gets it.

El Col