Brantham Athletic 0-6 Hadleigh Utd

Brantham Athletic 0-6 Hadleigh Utd

A fantastic weekend was topped off with an amazing night on the road.  We arrived at Brantham knowing a win for our hosts would put them top of the league.

We started the game brightly and Shaun French up front (filling in for Lee McGlone stuck in heavy traffic) looked a real threat and was bullying the Brantham Defenders.  We looked dangerous down the flank with Danny Allen and Daryl Alexander causing the Brantham full backs a tough night.  We welcomed Liam Jennings back into the team as Lukey Ingram had returned to Bury.  We were moving the ball around with great confidence and it looked as if we were the table toppers. 

In the first half an hour we didn't give Brantham a sniff, their best chance was a tame 30 yard free kick.  However in the final 10 minutes of the half Brantham came back into the game and Ollie Mann should of scored from 3 yards out but his effort hit the post and went wide. 

However we went in at half time level and we would have definitely been satisfied with a point against such a well respected team.

Nobody knew what the second half had in store but it was to turn into the best 45 minutes of football I can ever remember playing in.

Brantham started the second half brightly and I had to make two saves from Mann and Mayhew. Five minutes into the second half we took and well worked lead when a Liam Jennings corner was headed home by Ollie Canfer.

Two minutes later we doubled our lead when Chris McLaughlin ran through the Brantham defence and supplied Ben Deacon with a simple tap in to put us two up. 

Five minutes later unbelievably we went 3 up when Deacs was on hand to slide in once again from close range.  We all had to continue with the work rate and effort we had shown all night if we wanted to be sure of all three points, so we kept pushing and pressuring Brantham. 

We went 4 up mainly thanks to Kris Rose persistence who delivered a dangerous ball for Deacs to finish off for his hat trick.  We had deserved every goal and we were playing with real confidence ripping Brantham open on every attack. 

However unfortunately for us and specifically me on 70 minutes the referee gave a penalty when I was a judged to have brought down Brantham's striker.  However I won the ball and felt very hard done by.  However for my sake and for everybody else who had worked so hard to keep a clean sheet I managed to save the resulting penalty. 

For me personally it felt amazing as I didn't want to let the boys down and concede a sloppy goal after we had worked so hard for a clean sheet. Five minutes later we made it six when Canf got his second with a fantastic headed goal from a corner.  With ten minutes left we kept going and Deacs managed to score his fourth and our sixth when Remi Garret delivered a fantastic ball into the box. 

When the final whistle blew it was such a relief to win the game, keep a clean sheet and really feel like we had re-payed everybody who we'd let down the week before.