Before I start this report, our thoughts and condolences to all at Witham who lost a club member at an all too early age last week. We were honoured to join them in a minute’s silence to remember him before the game.

With a full squad of 16, stand-in skipper Clarky demanded full effort from everyone on the pitch from the off given our options for rotating players, and for once we started on the front-foot. After ten minutes of solid pressure, our first substitute, David entered the fray, and with virtually his first touch, pounced on a loose ball at the top of the D and clattered a fine finish just inside the keeper’s right post.

After another spell of pressure failed to bring any increase in our lead, Witham had their best spell of the match. On a couple of occasions they worked an extra man in midfield resulting in their forwards getting behind our defence, but Rich, as ever, was more than equal to their efforts on goal.Our half-time talk focussed on the need to keep the midfield tight and get back to attacking down the flanks where we felt we had the beating of them for pace. It took a while for us to implement those changes but once we did the goals came at a rush.

Firstly, Asa got on the end of a cross from the right and after the keeper saved his first two efforts, he forced the ball home past a defender on the line. Next, Adam claimed the ball on the right-side of the D and finished cleanly at the near post.Not to be outdone, Pete Cossey got his first goal for the club from an even tighter angle on the right, before our best goal of the day when the ball was worked out from defence, down the left side, eventually finding Clarky alone in the D. With the team expecting a lob over the keeper, he instead advanced, committing the keeper to his near post before crossing for Bertie to tap-in at the far to complete our 5-0 win.

This was a great team performance with six players getting votes for man of the match, but clear winner was Bertie for a dynamic performance up-front. And many thanks to Rich for providing the natty light blue strip to avoid a colour clash, even if some of us still insisted on passing to the team in yellow.