Pre Season Friendly, Saturday 15th July
My fifth PSF in seven days (yes I know, I can't believe that either, and I had not done any before last weekend!!!) saw me over at The Len Forge Centre as Essex Senior League side White Ensign were hosting Isthmian North side Witham Town as both sides continue to prepare for the new season.
Ensign were embarking on another season at Step Five and the ESL, they had finished 13th in their last campaign and were hoping to maybe better that this season, they had held onto some of last season's squad and add some more quality too so no doubt manager Aaron Bloxham and Co would hope these additions would help them to push on for a top ten finish perhaps this term.
Witham Town endured another tough season in the 2022/23 campaign, but they did manage to finish fifth bottom, seven points clear of Coggeshall Town who were in the final relegation play off spot (Coggeshall eventually fell into the ESL themselves) thus earning another season at Step Four and the Isthmian North.
Gary Kimble has also returned as manager for Town too, his last spell was a very successful won when they won promotion to the Isthmian Premier, so the club are hoping he can work his magic again and at least see the club to a much better season this time around, although it will be tough for sure.
It was nice to see Town super fan James Beardwell prior to the game, and after grabbing a selfie with him and an interview on his vlog (yes I am finally famous!!!) attention turned to the game itself which would be played in sunny but very blustery conditions (as I write this the wind is still battering against my kitchen window in my flat near the seafront!!!).
This would make it tougher for the players out there although at least it wasn't driving rain as well, that would have been worse, at least the sun was shining, and after only two minutes Town had the lead when a corner in from the left saw Rowan Dorling, son of ESL chair Lee no less (Lee was in attendance too) get across his marker to send a powerful header at the Ensign goal and although a defender tried to clear it off the line he could only help it on it's way into the net.
Not the start the hosts were looking for but they did recover and actually probably had the edge for the rest of the half, even though they were playing into the wind in the opening forty five minutes, and despite this their only real chance saw Hunter's shot cleared off the line by a defender's head, meaning the half ended with Witham holding a slender lead.
It had been a scrappy first forty five minutes, not helped by the wind of course, but the visitors stamped their authority on the contest early in the second period when netting twice in the opening ten minutes of the half, firstly winning a penalty two minutes after the break which saw the returning Jeffrey Cobblah step up and find the target from twelve yards, and then adding a third in the 53rd minute when their nine sent a lovely chip over the keeper and into the net.
Ensign managed to refocus after this awful start to the second period and twenty minutes into the half when an error at the back from the visitors resulted in Adebayo receiving the ball just outside the box, and he fired a powerful effort beyond the keeper and into the bottom corner of the net, thus reducing the arrears in the process.
The visitors, who apart from that moment looked fairly untroubled at the back in the majority, had the final say in this contest when they added a fourth goal with five minutes remaining after the fourteen broke the Ensign offside trap to stroll clear, round the keeper, and slot home, although the hosts were not to happy with the assistant as they were adamant he had strayed offside. The assistant though disagreed and the goal stood, and it meant Town had netted four in this contest and ran out winners in this latest PSF.
Full time White Ensign 1 Witham Town 4
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