Witham travelled to Tiptree to take on TK Eagles in an important title run in match.
Witham got off to a poor start when a free kick went into the 18 yard box and some miscommunication between the defence playing an offside trap ended up with the home side taking the lead within 2 minutes. Witham bounced back and nearly equalised 5 minutes later when some good build up play found Ratcliffe on the left 12 yards out but his shoot went over the bar. On 21 minutes Witham drew level when Yeo delivered a dangerous ball to the back post that found Orr 6 yards out and he made no mistake slotting the ball past the keeper at his near post. Unfortunately minutes later Ratcliffe went down injured with a reoccurring knee injury that has plagued him for the majority of the season and he was replaced by McCormack. On 27 minutes Witham took the lead with a superb individual goal by Orr, he collected a throw in 35 yards out and in the centre of the pitch, turned his man took a touch with his left and then with his right foot blasted the ball into the bottom right hand corner leaving the keeper with no chance. Minutes before half time it was McCormack who scored a superb individual goal also to give Witham a 2 goal lead. He picked the ball up 30 yards out drove at the defence and from 25 yards blasted the ball at goal, the ball moved so much that the keeper went one way and then tried desperately to get back the other way to save it but to no avail.
HALF TIME TK EAGLES 1 WITHAM GLACTICOS 3
Witham introduced Cullum at half time who has been impressive in recent weeks hoping he could help kill the game off but the home side had different ideas. They were full of energy and desperately launching balls forward to try and get back into the game. As ever the centre backs of Murphy and Clark stood tall and won everything in the air to relieve some of the pressure. Witham didn't create a lot in the second half and were struggling to retain possession and it didn't help when Cullum come off injured mid way through the second half. TK eagles had a lifeline on 79 minutes when McCormack was adjudged to bring a player down and the home side were awarded a penalty which they made no mistake in converting and had a good 10 plus minutes of having a go at getting the equaliser. Witham showed character and with 5 minutes left Yeo picked up the ball and squared it to Orr who made no mistake in slotting home from 6 yards to complete his hat trick and take him close to achieving 30 goals for the season.
It wasn't a great performance from us but we got the job done and showed some character in the last 10 minutes to get 3 points. It keeps pressure on the leaders and keeps us in pole position to gain promotion. Man of the match today was Kane Orr who bagged another hat trick and again pulled it out of the bag when needed. Next week is a huge game against our rivals in the semi finals of the Malcom Foy Cup and is a trophy that we currently have in our possession so we need to up the ante next Sunday and do everything we can to achieve another end of the season cup final.
