Town had a very frustrating start to the season when for some unknown reason they were not given a league game for the first 3 Saturdays of the season and, as it was impossible to arrange any friendlies they took on Westhamians in their first game after 3 weeks of inactivity and got well and truly thumped.
The following week they put in a much improved performance to draw with highly fancied Mountnessing Boca and just when it looked like we could get some fluency going and “get on a roll” of games, we then had another 3 weeks off before putting in another rusty performance and getting beaten away at Benfleet.
The week after Town won their first game of the season when they beat Broomfield in the Bill Spurgeon Cup and the following week secured their first league win of the season against Faces. The optimism soon faded when they then lost their next 3 games, against Galleywood in the league and 2 cup games against lower league opposition and therefore going out of the respective cups.
Manford Way was next and Town won an amazing game 4-3 despite to be honest, being completely outplayed for 90 minutes. Town then lost away to Canning Town in what, even at this early stage, was thought to be an early relegation 6 pointer and then went out of the senior division cup a week later, again to lower league opposition.
Town were then well and truly stuffed at home by Kelvedon Hatch to continue a pretty depressing run. So we came to the end of January with just 2 league wins under our belt and bottom of the league, so suffice to say things could have been a good deal rosier.
New players were then signed and additionally some of the key players, who had been missed most of the season so far with injuries, started to return and the next 2 games brought a respectable draw away to Galleywood and a narrow defeat away to White Ensign after completely dominating much of the game.
Saturday 13th Feb was to prove to be the turning point of the season. During the morning an already depleted squad startled to dwindle still further with numerous last minute drop outs and it looked at one stage as though we would have to call the game off, unable to raise a side. However after a few phone calls and a couple of last minute signings on the day Town managed to put out a side that beat Rayleigh Town 2-1 with a tremendously gutsy performance.
The signings stayed and with them and the returning players Town then went on a truly tremendous 10 match unbeaten run, winning 8 of them, including the performance of the season when they went to Frenford Senior and won 3-1. The magnificent run came to an end when they were beaten by Kelvedon hatch 2-0 but this time, so different to the embarrassing game against the same opposition earlier, there was little or nothing to choose between the 2 teams.
The season sort of petered out when for some reason we didn’t play any Saturday games but were lumbered with a string of mid week games where Town struggled to get players out and only won one of their remaining 5 games, losing 3 and drawing the other. However, this should not detract from an excellent run in to the end of the season. Had they started in such form, with the same squad of players, Town could have been looking at a much higher finish. In the end Town finished a very creditable 7th bearing in mind that at the end of January it looked like relegation was a certainty and if we can keep this squad together for next season I am looking for another step forward and a higher league finish.
Thanks to all the players for a very enjoyable season, enjoy your summer and see you pre-season.
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