Town made the very short trip to take on local rivals and league leaders Kelvedon Hatch on a very warm and still Saturday afternoon. Town were missing three important key players in Niki Love, Nicky Evans and Andy Allen but Brad Merrick returned from dangling his rod and worm in some lake in France and took his place on the bench alongside Lodgey who was making a long overdue return after weeks on the injury list. The subs bench was completed by Flighty who has been AWOL (working) for months but came along to help out on the day and hopefully will now be returning on a more regular basis.

On an excellent playing surface Town were a bit slow out of the blocks and the opening 15 minutes were dominated by Hatch during which time they took an early lead after 5 minutes when Town gave the ball away on the edge of their own box, leaving their defence seriously up the creek without a paddle – the resulting through ball was inch perfect and it left the Hatch striker the easiest of tap ins from close range, 1-0. Town’s response to this early setback was excellent and, after the first 15 minutes, they had much the better of the remainder of the half during which time they put the Hatch defence under pressure and posed a serious threat. Wiggy and Dave Martin hA*Sled and harried the Hatch midfield so they couldn’t settle into their normal pA*Sing game and Lee Humphrey did a superb “job” on Hatches flying machine James Burt and kept him quiet. Davey Armstrong was in fine battling form and the quick feet of Polley caused problems for the hatch defence and resulted in several free kicks around the edge of the Hatch box. From the first of these Polley curled one round the wall but straight at the keeper who saved easily, Brad Mills then tried to fire one in and hit the wall – the third and best one was from skipper Mark Neal who side-footed one past the defensive wall but Danny Fenn in the Hatch goal made a superb one handed save low down to his left to tip the ball away for a corner. Town also had a decent shout for a penalty turned down when Polley’s quick feet again turned a defender who appeared to “leave a foot out” which Polley went over – the ref waved away appeals – definitely seen them given. Davey Armstrong then hit an absolute pile driver from 25 yards but unfortunately a yard or two over the bar. Polley then turned a hatch defender out wide left of the penalty box and curled one agonisingly a few inches wide of the far post with the keeper beaten. So, apart from being a goal down, all was good and Town were looking forward to the second half to try and get something out of the game when in the 52nd, so 7th minute, of added on time (there were no injuries so no trainers had been on the pitch?) Hatch carved open Towns defence with a couple of incisive first time pA*Ses and again the Hatch striker was left with an easy finish,2-0. The half time whistle went a few seconds later, before the game could restart, bringing an end to the theory that we were playing the whole game straight through without a break.

The second half was a fairly even affair, a bit of a midfield stalemate with Hatch probably creating the better chances late on in the game when Town were still pushing forward looking for a goal to get back in the game. The attacking threat of Hatch’s strikers and wide men was superbly dealt with by Ready, Mark Neal and Graham Jeater and this contest was one of the highlights of the game and the Town defensive trio should take great credit for keeping such an excellent strike force “relatively” quiet. Brad Merrick replaced Brez who’s back was playing up and was straight in to the game playing one or two nice pA*Ses. Lodgey and Flighty then replaced Wiggy (exhausted) and the excellent Davey Armstrong (groin strain and/or just plain old) and Graham Jeater was thrown up front to see if he could produce any miracles which almost but not quite worked. Hatch caught Town on the break in the final minutes and could maybe have scored again which would have been very harsh. The final whistle went with Hatch running out 2 goal winners and Town suffering their first league defeat in 11 games going back almost 3 months.

Summary: In my opinion an excellent game of football and to quote one of the supporters present “it was nice to see two teams getting the ball down and playing football” – I don’t think I am being biased when I say that there was little or no difference between the 2 teams on the day but you can’t give teams with the quality of Hatch presents after 5 minutes and expect to come away with anything. But overall I was very pleased with the performance if disappointed by the result.

Player of the match this week is Ready who was outstanding and at his “warrior like” best.

El Col