Town made the short trip to the Brentwood Arena on Saturday to take on Mountnessing Boca. On a sweltering hot afternoon and on a rock hard bumpy pitch with a breeze blowing it wasn’t going to be an easy footballing afternoon for either side. There were 2 changes from Wednesdays win against Epping; Chris Neal came back in goal and Wiggy replaced Brad Merrick who was absent on a fishing trip. With Ready still not 100% fit, Brez finally returning from the longest honeymoon ever (he wasn’t very brown though – perhaps he didn’t get out in the sun for long ??), these 2 took their place on the bench alongside Dave Martin.

It was evident right from the kick off that the conditions were difficult and both teams struggled to get the ball down and play any form of passing football particularly from the back where safety was definitely the best policy as Town almost found out to their cost when they almost got caught out twice trying to play out from the back. Boca created a half chance from distance following a very rare passing move but the shot was high wide and not so handsome. At the other end Towns main threat came when they ran at the Boca defence but this meant they were restricted to shots from distance and failed to hit the target on a few occasions. Just before the half time break Wiggy, by now starting to struggle with his ankle again, hit a long curling shot from out wide left which bounced off the bar with the Boca keeper beaten. Half time arrived 0-0.

The second half continued in much the same vain but Town did look a bit more threatening. Brez replaced Wiggy after 15 minutes in an effort to keep Wiggy’s ankle intact for the remainder of the season. Lee Humphrey burst down the right wing on a couple of occasions but unfortunately when he fizzed the ball across the penalty area there was no “fox in the box” to convert what would have been a couple of very easy tap ins. Ben Polley, who was closely marked all game managed to turn his defender on the edge of the box and a chance opened up for him but he went for placement instead of power and the Boca keeper made a comfortable save. The game looked destined to end up goalless when with 12 minutes left Town scored to take the lead; Niki Love latched onto a through ball and scored with a delicious lob from 25 yards over the advancing Boca keeper, 1-1. Davey Armstrong who had given his all on a very hot day was then sacrificed to put on another defender in Dave Martin in an attempt to hold on to the lead. Boca threw everything at Town to try to force the equaliser but Towns defence, with Andy Allen, Jeater and Mark Neal again in superb form, coped quite comfortably and it looked like Town would see it through and go home with all 3 points. With 3 minutes left Boca threw in a cross from the left wing that Chris Neal caught comfortably but was caught whilst in “mid air” and crashed to the ground clearly shaken up and in pain – unbelievably not only was a foul not given but play was allowed to continue leaving Town under the cosh with their keeper lying prostrate on the ground. Town then conceded a free kick right on the edge of the box when Brad Mills was adjudged to have handled the ball – 2 issues here – one the ball was kicked at him from less than a yard away and perhaps more importantly it hit him in the face. Nevertheless, Boca were awarded a free kick and equalised from it with an unopposed close range header that went in off the post – all very disappointing. As happens in these situations Boca were now galvanised and on the ascendency but to Towns relief there was now just the 8 minutes of injury time left to negotiate. To Towns credit they went up the other end and almost created a chance to win it but again the ball passed through the opposition’s box without any Town player getting on the end of it. The full time whistle went.

Summary: A lacklustre game lacking in quality if I’m honest on a very difficult surface and with players from both sides being shut down quickly all over the park nobody could get the ball down and play and the end result was a scrappy game littered with errors. A draw was probably the right result on the day - Town carved out more and better chances but Boca probably enjoyed more possession overall.

Players of the match: Three way tie this week between the defensive trio of Andy Allen, Graham Jeater and Mark Neal.

El Col