Town welcomed bottom placed Faces to Love Lane on Saturday eager to continue their recent winning ways. Davey Armstrong turned up on time this week looking rather fetching in shorts and shades – we thought he had taken our suggestion and bought a watch – it turned out he hadn’t, but he had bought another car instead. Following last weeks impressive performance against Frenford the same starting 11 was named which left Andy Allen and Graham Jeater, two of Towns most consistent and best performers over the last few weeks on the bench. Wiggy was absent working and Brez is still away on the longest honeymoon ever known to man but at least he should be fit when he returns!!!. Birthday boy, Lodgey, although still not fit, was again present but this time rather than restrict his spending to Benson and Hedges he shared it around and contributed several pounds to Carlings profit margin as well.

On a hot sunny afternoon and on a very bumpy surface Town kicked off and were dominant from the word go. In the opening 15 minutes, Ben Polley played in Niki Love twice with exquisite through balls but Niki just failed to convert, firing narrowly wide. Town then suffered a blow when Ready, who has been outstanding of late, had to depart the scene with a pulled groin and was replaced by Graham Jeater who slotted in seamlessly. Town’s pressure paid off when they worked a short corner and Lee Humphrey cut in and fired home with a right foot curler shot from the corner edge of the penalty box 1-0. Mark Neal then took a bang on the head and it didn’t look good for a moment as he looked very groggy – we did the “count my fingers bit” but all fears were allayed when Mark said he thought Spurs would finish in the top four this year – straight away we knew he was delusional and therefore perfectly normal and OK to carry on. A few minutes later Town doubled their lead – Ben Polley made his way into the box and was clumsily fouled for one of the more obvious penalties – there was some drivel from the oppos bench about diving but when one of the Faces players shouted across the pitch at the top of his voice that it was a most definitely a penalty and a stupid challenge it sort of ended the debate. Polley stroked home the penalty – 2-0. A few minutes later Town went 3 up – Niki Love latched onto a through ball wide right, wove inside a defender and placed the ball wide of the advancing keeper for an excellent finish – 3-0. Half time arrived and more of the same please were the orders for the second half.

Despite requests not to take the foot of the pedal Town started rather lackadaisically and the opening phase of the second half was a rather disjointed and messy affair with neither side able to string two passes together. After 20 minutes Faces got a goal back when their striker just beat Chris Neal to a long deep cross and guided a header into the net – 3-1. Faces took heart from this and threw everything at Town for the next few minutes and the Town defence of Dave Martin, Mark Neal and Jeater had to raise their game to keep them at bay, which they did, reasonably comfortably and apart from a couple of long shots Chris Neal was not seriously threatened. Twenty minutes before the end Brad Mills, who had another fine game, and a much nicer hairdo this week then turned an ankle and was replaced by Andy Allen. Although Town were still in control the next goal was vital. Inspired by Davey Armstrong who put in another all action stint and Nicky Evans who gave a master class in keeping it nice and simple and keeping possession (I doubt he gave the ball away all afternoon) Town wrapped the game up with 18 minutes left – Niki Love found himself one on one with a Faces defender on the left wing and accelerated past him in the blink of an eye – he looked up and unselfishly laid the ball back into Lee Humphrey’s path for an easy tap in 4-1. A few minutes later Town scored their fifth and best goal of the game. Brad Merrick who had a fine game, played the ball into Polley's feet wide left, Polley and Niki Love then exchanged a couple of “one two’s” before Polley laid the ball back to Niki Love who had the easiest of tap ins for his second, and Towns fifth goal of the game.

Summary: an excellent first half full of attacking threat and patchy second half performance. Town must learn not to relax at any stage of a game as had Faces scored a second goal with 20 minutes left it could have made for an uncomfortable end to the game.

Player of the match this week is Nicky Evans who was superb, never gave the ball away and kept things ticking over in the middle of the park.

El Col