Town travelled to the East Thurrock stadium on Saturday to take on Hutton in the Denny King Cup. After a few weeks of full availability and a dressing room bulging with players Town went back to the dark old days of early season and had 5 key players missing and were subsequently down to a bare 11 fit players. We tried to cajole, bully, harass, and embarrass old boy Grandy, who had come along to support us, into donning a tracksuit but he made some pathetic excuse about having to run a half marathon the next day so politely declined our invitation; after witnessing the next 90 minutes I’m bet he’s glad he did and pretty sure he made the right decision. So we were left with just one sub - Rob “The Cat” Newman who was dragged kicking and screaming to the subs bench but, as by his own admission, his legs stiffened up getting changed for the game he was available in emergencies only. You got the feeling that this was a game that neither side was particularly interested in and whilst no one wants to lose, let’s just say that a defeat would not be devastating.

The game kicked off and it was fairly even for most of the first half. Davey Armstrong, Lee Humphrey and Brad Mills tested the excellent Hutton keeper with fierce long range shots but his handling was superb. At the other end Town’s defence looked reasonably secure and as such clear cut chances were at a premium for both teams. Right in the middle of Towns best spell of the game, just before half time, Hutton took the lead; a mishit shot from distance that was going miles wide was spilled back into play by Chris Neal who was attempting to save it for some unknown reason leaving the Hutton striker a simple tap in from 3 yards - 0-1. Half time.

The second half was very poor indeed with Town completely unable to pass the ball to a colleague with the same colour shirt on and as a result Hutton dominated most of the second half. The ball was like the proverbial “hot potato” and Town resorted to attempting “Hollywood “ passes, rather than keeping it simple, which simply resulted in them giving the ball away a bit easier and more regularly. It also took 90 minutes to work out that the 6 foot 6 man mountain Hutton centre half was probably going to win all the headers so maybe a good idea not to keep slamming hopeful 50 yard passes, goal kicks and free kicks in the air in his direction!!!! : despite their territorial domination Towns defence stood firm so at just a goal down Town were still in the game – that’s until they decided to, very generously, hand Hutton another goal as clearly handing them one on a plate is not enough so lets give them another – a complete and utter miskick by last man Mark Neal allowed the Hutton striker to waltz through completely unopposed and to score with ease - 0-2 and time to turn the lights off and go home.

Summary: Shocking performance hopefully not borne out of complacency because we have won a few games recently and suddenly think we are world beaters

El Col