That was a poor game on a terrible pitch. What is it with pitches in Essex? Does the local soil have some kind of defect that prevents it from being rolled flat? Grayveley was bad, Billericay was worse, this was like playing on corrugated iron. Even Clunis was rendered almost toothless when running with the ball as it kept bobbling up and bouncing away from him off his shins. It actually made for quite a dangerous situation; on several occasions players losing control of the ball as it ran away from them overstretched and collided awkwardly with an opponent.
I missed the first goal, having cut it a bit fine anyway then been unable to get on the last train that would have got me there for kick off when it was too full to board at Stratford. Luckily Mitch overtook me in a cab and stopped to give me a lift, and we heard the cheer just as we arrived at the turnstiles. Hamlet had much the better of the first half against opposnents who looked out of their depth at this level after winning last season's D1N play off from 4th place, and won't be here for much longer.
Three minutes into the second half the lead was doubled when the keeper flapped at an inswinging corner, and when the ball dropped at Pinnock's feet he fired it into the net. There wasn't a lot to get excited about in the remainder of the match. Brentwood pulled one back just before the hor when a free kick from just outside the box was cleanly despatched into the near top corner, but they never really looked very likely to complete any sort of comeback.
There were four changes to the team that started at Leiston, which I think is too many. Drage understandably returned for Sankofa, Carew replaced James; but Hibbert & Yiga were also dropped from that side. Scannell did well up front in the first half, then faded; Michael-Percil dropped into midfield to accommodate Murrell-Williamson, whose game couldn't really have been less suited to this pitch even on his early season form, which is sadly now a distant memory. This was the weakest performance since the Tooting fiasco, and we badly missed James' composure and authority in the centre of the field. We give away too many needless free kicks against the weaker sides, who simply aren't good enough to hurt us in open play, which gives them a prime opportunity to punish us. Both goals in the 2-2 draw at home to Farnborough came form free kicks, as did VCD's equaliser in our defeat tha their place, and now Brentwood's goal here.
Great turnout by Hamlet fans, must have been at least 100 in a crowd only four short of equalling their best of the season vs Enfield.
Team (4-3-3): Edwards - Nelson, Drage, Pinnock, Brown - Dixon, Carew, Michael-Percil - Clunis, Scannell, Murrell-Williamson. Subs: Moss (for Michael-Percil), Hibbert (for Murrell-Williamson), Yiga (for Scannell), James, Waldren (not used). attendance: 222