Witham travelled to Braintree to take on BTSC in an important league fixture to keep up their promotion push. Witham was without Stoneham, Ratcliffe and Humphreys through injury and also had to contend with suspensions to centre backs Murphy and Clark leaving a bare 11 players.
Witham created an early chance when McCormack found space down the wing but no-one was on hand to apply the finishing touch. The new look back four looked comfortable in the early stages with Ballard and the younger Stoneham brother at the helm communicating well and dealing with everything they had to. Williams was also back in the side after an in season holiday and looked comfortable making some good early tackles and distributing the ball well. On 14 minutes Galacticos took the lead when a corner was delivered by McCormack and Cullum was on hand to head home from 8 yards. A minute later a crossfield ball by the home side was met by Braintree's striker in the box and he finished well to make the game level. Galacticos went back on the offensive and Orr nearly scored when his shot from 25 yards was well saved. On 27 Minutes Orr picked the ball up and beat the centre back to the ball but was brought down by a rash challenge and the ref awarded the penalty. Yeo stepped up and placed the ball home to keep up his tremendous record of goals from the spot. 6 minutes later against the run of play the home side scored quite a lucky goal, Stoneham cleared the ball and it was picked up just inside Witham's half, the full back over hit a ball that was caught by Cannock but he agonisingly let it slip and the ball crossed the line. It was unfortunate on Cannock as the wet conditions played a major part. Just on the stroke of half time Vicarage made a good run and was picked out by Yeo his delivery took a deflection and spun up in the air, Lawes was first to react and headed across the keeper into the top right hand corner to give Witham the lead at half time
HALF TIME BTSC 2 WITHAM GALACTICOS 3
Witham come out knowing a goal could kill the game off and went close when Orr played the ball across the 6 yard box that was just inches infront of McCormack who made a late run into the box. Witham continued early in the second half to get a fourth goal but lacked the killer pass and finish. Cullum was performing well all over the pitch and winning numerous battles in the air both defensively and in the middle of the park to relieve the pressure on the defence. BTSC pushed hard for an equaliser but Stoneham and Adams made good interceptions and Yeo was on hand numerous times to sweep everything up infront of them. Orr nearly made the game safe with ten minutes remaining but the keeper saved well. With 3 minutes left the home side thought they had the equaliser when they scored but the linesman rightly ruled the goal offside. Eventually Witham held on and defended well as a unit to grab the 3 points
FINAL SCORE BTSC 2 WITHAM GALACTICOS 3
It was an important 3 points gained today and considering the injury and suspension's we couldn't have asked for more. The back four performed really well considering they haven't played together before so a big well done to Jamie Adams, Harry Stoneham, Del Ballard and Aaron Williams. Our finishing will need to be a bit better in forthcoming games if we are to gain the divisional trophy and promotion but that's something i'm confident we will address. Today's man of the match was Marti Cullum, he put in a superb shift and worked extremely hard especially winning numerous headers in both offensive and defensive positions. He see out the last 20 minutes of the game carrying a knock likewise did Lawes and Yeo which is credit to them considering the short numbers we have at present.
Bring on the Cup Final next week : )
