Ongar welcomed Harold Wood Athletic to Love Lane on Tuesday evening for their second league encounter in a few days, having played them the previous week end.

On a lovely sunny evening, with the pitch in good condition and in front of the biggest crowd of the season the game kicked off and Wood were straight on the attack and looked threatening. Town settled down and played some nice stuff themselves and the blistering pace of Niki Love up front carved open the Wood defence on a couple of occasions but the Wood keeper was not unduly troubled by a couple of shots from the edge of the box. Wood continued to push forward but were denied by a couple of excellent saves by Chris Neal in the Town goal and the woodwork. Town had to make a change after 25 minutes when Ben Polley, who had fallen very awkwardly on his hip, was unable to continue and was replaced by Chris Headon. Woods excellent passing and movement continued to threaten but Towns midfield and defensive trio of Lodgey, Ready and Dave Martin dug in and so we got to half time goalless.

Unfortunately Town forgot to come out of the dressing room for the first 10 minutes of the second half and soon found themselves 2 goals down when first of all a Wood player was allowed to run half the length of the pitch before, completely unchallenged, was allowed to fire home from the edge of the box and a few minutes later a Wood player was completely unmarked 12 yards out and fired home first time into the corner of the net. A few minutes later Flighty replaced the ever willing but flagging Davey Marshall. So, Town found themselves two goals down against the league champions elect with nothing to play for, so you could almost understand if they waved the white flag and looked forward to a summer of rest and recuperation after a long hard season. Not a bit of it – their response was simply magnificent and you could almost see the players, metaphorically speaking, roll their sleeves up and “go for it” – all of a sudden Towns defence and midfield won every header and tackle and the midfield of Flighty, Brad Merrick, Wiggy, Lee Humphrey and Mark Neal drove the troops forward with a passion allowing Chris Headon, who was in magnificent imperious form, to orchestrate a number of fine attacking moves. Niki Love gave as good a strikers individual display as I have seen for a long, long time when, up front on his own he single handidly ran Woods defence ragged. Town were rewarded with 18 minutes left when Chris Headon, played one of the passes of the season, which landed at the feet of Niki Love who didn’t have to break stride before controlling “one touch” and finishing superbly, 1-2 and game on. The final minutes were mostly spent in Woods half as Town frantically went is search of an equaliser but were denied by a couple of excellent saves by the Wood keeper and some desperate last ditch defending. Wood however looked dangerous on the break and Towns defence were stretched but not breached again. Showing great technique Headon hit a half volley just over the bar from fully 25 yards and Niki Love’s rampaging runs were continuing to cause Wood major problems but the excellent Wood keeper denied him twice with close range saves. So the final whistle went and although Town lost the game they can take great credit from the performance.

Summary: a really excellent game of football which despite losing I thoroughly enjoyed. Harold wood are an excellent side and look destined to win the league for the second year running but I do honestly feel that there hasn’t been an awful lot to choose between the 2 sides in the last 2 games so great progress has been made this season.

Player of the match: Niki Love who was quite simply awesome.

El Col