With the vets pushing for promotion for the 2nd year running this was a vital game for us to get through against Laindon Athletic 
who are next to bottom of the division.
It was stressed before the game that this would be no pushover especially as we had 6 squad members absent this week through work, injury and skiing holidays (hmm!)
The signs were good before the 
game. Liam had a hangover and Randy Tit was 25 minutes late…..business as usual we all thought.
Yet again Jon Short managed to lose the toss, get the choice of ends wrong for Mike and then blame everyone else for his own shortcomings…….business as usual we all though.
Above: Reenactment of Dave Owens falling over the ball and tearing his ankle ligaments last week
Surely nothing could stop the mighty green machine now.
We started the game with a few players in unfamiliar positions due the absentees. Liam was centre back and Randy Tit was our target man striker.
Then we kicked off, the wind blew and blew and blew. We put one decent attack together ending with Mark Hubbard squaring the ball into the box and Randy running on to the end of it. Six yards out….he can’t miss. 
I couldn’t look and I’m sure I saw Matt Cotgrove looking heavenwards and praying.
Randy went with right foot, stumbled, stuck out a left leg. The ball hit his studs, confused the keeper and trickled over the line.
We were gob-smacked. Randy celebrated with his now customary Monastery of Sound jig.
The wind blew some more. Half time came and went but the wind stayed. I don’t think we crossed the half way line in the 2nd half but we stuck firm and defended like demons.
The final whistle came 5 minutes early cos I don’t think the referee could take much more of this skill-less game.
At the end of the day, all things considered, it was definitely a game of 2 halves but not quite a game of 90 minutes.
The sign of a good team is winning ugly and winning when playing bad. We ticked all the relevant boxes this week…..and have 3 more points in the bag. 
Right - 2 injured players (Rob & Dave) and a new injury in Mike supporting the team - now that's commitment
| Scorers Name |
Goals |
| R. Tit |
1 |