Town welcomed second placed Epping Town to Love Lane on a beautiful sunny, but chilly evening. There were 3 enforced changes to the starting line from the Faces game at the weekend; out went Chris Neal and Dave Martin, both working and Ready who failed a fitness test on his dodgy groin. These 3 were replaced by Motty in goal, Graham Jeater and Andy Allen.

Town started brightly, played some neat and tidy football and had slightly the better of the opening 20 minutes during which time they could very easily taken the lead but unfortunately failed to capitalise on some very good chances including a couple of “one on one” opportunities. They then hit the bar when Polley swung in a free kick through a group of players; it took the merest of deflections (not sure who off) past the keeper only to bounce extraordinarily high on the hard surface up onto the bar and back into the keepers arms. Town were playing a nice blend of football mixing up some short simple stuff with some longer ball to utilise the pace of Niki Love who once again was proving a real handful. For some reason Town then grew impatient and decided to stop playing the short simple football that had established superiority and started going very long ball virtually all the time, which only served to surrender possession on a regular basis enabling Epping to get a foothold in the game and for the remainder of the half it was pretty even end to end stuff. Half time arrived goalless and fairly even but it was thought that if Town could “up it” a bit and shorten the game down they could go on to win it.

Unfortunately, due presumably to the Town players having the memory span of a goldfish they continued to try the most difficult and/or longest pass they could on most occasions, gave the ball away with monotonous regularity and as a result came under intense pressure for the opening 20 minutes of the half. During this spell of non stop pressure the back 3 of Mark Neal, Andy Allen and Graham Jeater were quite outstanding and despite the incessant pressure stand in keeper Motty was relatively untroubled and there was only one major scare so Towns goal remained intact. Stand in keeper for the day, Motty, should also be congratulated for some fine handling and one save from point blank range that was superb. Epping forced corner after corner and Towns goal was under siege. Wiggy replaced Brad Merrick and he made an instant impact on the game and had a major influence on what was to follow. With 15 minutes left Town, having ridden the storm, were now looking to go on and win it and started to excerpt some pressure of their own. Niki Love was twice denied by last ditch tackles and Ben Polley created a couple of half chances for himself but his shots were weak and straight at the keeper. They won a couple of free kicks on the edge of the box in very dangerous positions which again were wasted with weak efforts. Lee Humphrey burst down the right wing and just had to lay the ball back for Niki Love to tap in but the pass was intercepted. The game looked destined for a goal less draw but with just 10 minutes left Town scored. Niki Love who is more known for running at defenders suddenly turned “fox in the box” goal poacher when he latched onto a loose ball 6 yards from goal and squeezed it past the helpless Epping keeper – 1-0. Davey Armstrong was immediately withdrawn and an extra defender, in Dave Martin, thrown on to protect the lead and see the game out. Wiggy clearly hadn’t read the script as he made sortie after sortie down the left wing in an attempt to get a second goal. He, and Town were rewarded with 3 minutes left when Wiggy burst down the wing again, rounded a defender and made his way into the penalty area where he was unceremoniously dumped to the ground by 2 Epping defenders – penalty. Ben Polley stepped up and settled the nerves and lowered the blood pressure of the Town bench by calmly slotting the penalty home 2-0. The full time whistle went a couple of minutes later and the 3 points were welcomed and very hard earned.

Summary: Although Towns performance was several notches below that of recent games and probably their worst for some time there is a resolve in the team these days and an ability to “dig out” results when not at their best. Several key players didn’t perform as they can but the defensive trio of Mark Neal, Graham Jeater and Andy Allen were immense and “treble handedly” kept Town in the game enabling them to win it late on.

Player of the match: the defensive trio mentioned above really but as I have to pick one its Mark Neal who was quite simply colossal.

El Col