Braintree Town 7 ETFC 1

[Pavagrotti]

What in life is better than sailing along the M11 and A120 in glorious sunshine with my beloved Enya at full volume. Not much!

 

After the lord mayors show of last week .......

 

{Chopper had to go with his babe to hospital after an accident in the home - God Bless Chopper and family our thoughts and prayers are with you.}

 

Braintree Kindly loaned us a keeper and we looked OK in the first half but a Rudi Hall goal from a setpiece just outside the box in the bottom corner in the 25th minute gave townies hope at half time 1-1. Second half in the searing heat we wilted and both the loaned keeper and our defence were found wanting whereas the Braintree defence was solid and the attack was in the second half very effective.

 

No complaints about the officials who were in my opinion excellent. And excellent hosting as always from our slimmer old friend Lee Harding. No sign of George Borg who was celebrating his aniversary, but his team were still a credit to him.

 

It was good to See simon Miller again in a town shirt

 

team Ager, riley, Negus, Snowden, Geragty, Brotherton, Wright, Hall, Miller, Everitt, Nyman Subs used, Francis, Masala, Nash, Wilson, Baldwin & Finch

[lovely stuff]

I think we have been better playing an outfield player in goal.

 

Why did etfc play the last 20 minutes with 10 players.

[Mark (Flag) Braintree]

You got back quick then Cleggy, I thought you were going to join us for the barbeque.

 

It was good to meet you, and all the other boys and girls that visit the Enfield Tn forum that were down in sunny Braintree, must of met about 10 of em. From memory : Billyboybubs, Cleggy, Squadron Leader....my memory has gone.

 

Good luck in the ESL.

Flag.

[Pavagrotti]

No I raced away for the last hour of Freeport where I got myself a pair of nice shoes! No disrespects just I planed to go there on the way but I felt I had left that a bit late on the arrival.

 

Barbecues are fine but the trouble had dinner waiting and best not offend!

[Mark (Flag) Braintree]

No probs Cleggy, glad you got your shoes. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

 

Cleggy Said.....

What in life is better than sailing along the M11 and A120 in glorious sunshine with my beloved Enya at full volume. Not much!

...........................

 

How did you find the new A120, no going through Takeley or Dunmow just a major road from Stansted to Braintree 12 mins from the M11 now. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

[Guest]

Cleggy, I've used your forum match notes as the basis of a match report. Do you want a credit and, if so, under what name? Email me via neil_avey@hotmail.com as I am unable to go on the forum under any registered name. Thanks!

[Jim Cunneen]

Finch was apparently not used!

 

Anyone give me an attendence please.

 

Thanks

 

Jim

[Squadron Leader]

 

Was very nice to meet you as well Mark, but why oh why did you have to charge £8.00 to get in, it cost us £24.00 to get in, bit steep for a Pre-season Friendly I thought!!

 

<img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

 

[Pavagrotti]

G thanks Neil - It is one I hoped would disappear into the ether but there you go better take on the Bruce Forsyth.

 

Notes would have been more accurate for want of a pen.

 

I though Busby was used - Yes I ordered a new pair of glasses yesterday too! Wont recognise myself soon!

 

"How did you find the new A120, no going through Takeley or Dunmow just a major road from Stansted to Braintree 12 mins from the M11 now. " The new road is awesome! You were going some to do it in 12 mins I do know - watch out for the boys in blue! Let's put it this way some of our fans came via the A12 and got stuck in traffic arriving well into the game and were not happy! A12 is a nightmare at rush hour and summer holidays so best to avoid it during those times. The A120 made the Clacton Town run easy as well just touching the A12 briefly.

 

[Old Offordian]

The A120 now completely duelled between Stansted and Braintree, whoo hoo!

 

No more crawling along at 30/40mph behind a long queue of traffic passing through Dunmow, Takely and no more being cut up at the Dunmow Tesco roundabout. This is going to really make things easier for away games in Essex when I also need to see the relatives in Witham, Chelmsford or Maldon.

 

 

[Football Man]

Bit of a bugger if you need to go further than Braintree though. Don't think there are any plans at the moment to improve the A120 from Braintree to the A12.

[Mark (Flag) Braintree]

Getting cut up at Tesco - Dunmow glad I am not the only one then.

 

Plans for new A12, understand they are planning, like all these things they come up against blocks from individuals. The next place is now the bottle neck at the McDonalds roundabout in Braintree, we need a road that goes diagional to join up with the A12 at Coggeshall / Kelvedon and get rid of the Coggeshall-Marks Tey part.

 

Unfortunately it wont happen over night.

[Mark (Flag) Braintree]

Quote:

Squadron Leader said:

Was very nice to meet you as well Mark, but why oh why did you have to charge £8.00 to get in, it cost us £24.00 to get in, bit steep for a Pre-season Friendly I thought!!

<img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Squadron Leader, Sorry I can't answer that, that would be a question for Iron Webbo and the club. He comes on these message boards as often as I do <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />, so sure he will see this thread and answer you.

[Anfield Towner]

I couldn't get to the Tilbury and PBT games so going from the 5-1 victory and fantastic performance against Hitchin to this was a bit of a shock!

 

I thought we put in a reasonable performance in the first half - 1-1 at half time - but the second half performance was disappointing to say the least.

 

Sorry to hear about Andy Hall's problems but VERY pleased that the guy who played isn't our reserve keeper! Think this showed how much our defence relies on Andy to get us out of trouble - we all know it but probably a useful reminder!

 

A few questions for those in the know:-

 

As LS questioned above, why did we play the end of the game with only 10 men? Was Snowy injured? I know the ref refused to let Carey Wright back on but why didn't Busby come on?

 

Where was Lee Smith?

 

Where has our new captain been recently?

 

Where was George Borg? Good to see Abbo using his Market Stall voice to full effect though! Thought it might end in tears when he started having a (verbal) go at Bradley though for being too soft! Would have liked to have seen Abbo playing but I guess George's absence made that difficult?

 

Time for Jim to rally the boys for a decent performance on Monday....

[lovely stuff]

I think part of the problem in the second half, was that the keeper Braintree lent us looked incapable of stopping any sort of shot (even those kicked straight at him). As such the Town defenders seemed to lose heart and stopped chasing and marking.

[Steph]

I think that you are unfair on the keeper. He was not a first team keeper that is clear but he stopped one or two certain goals and, with the keeper we had at PBT, I thing it would have been more than 7.

 

I am also concerned about the non-appearance of Lee Smith and Graham Hall. Are they on holiday?

 

In the second half the loss of a key central defender told and we had to wilt in that heat. I felt that, if we were down to ten men, we should not have played so many in attack and rejigged the formation a bit more. Still it was a friendly and I dont think the same mistakes would have been made in a league game.

 

The headed goals by Braintree demonstrates our lack of intelligence at set pieces. We must mark players and then challenge for the ball. We must be aware of movement as our opponents get into position. One of the Braintree goals there were three Braintres players all going up for the ball and the nearest Town player was a good 2 yards away. Still I did not see anything that made me worry about the coming season. Chopper is a better goalie and hopefully Lee Smith and Grahame Hall will be back. Everitt should play (He didn't yesterday) another absentee and Kitenge was also missing.

 

Hornchurch is another game.

[Mark (Flag) Braintree]

I understand that Georgie Borg was still on holiday.

 

Gary Abbott who picked up a knock at Wroxham in our Norfolk tour, was probably just being wise in not naming himself. Make sure he is fit hopefully when the Ryman Premier kicks off next week. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Jim Cunneen]

Told gate was 129 - thanks to those who helped.

[Guest]

Of that 129 I would say almost 100 were Enfield Town supporters. The level of Braintree support was poor.

 

The Braintree No9 should have been sent off for raising his hands at Brad Brotherton. I know it was a friendly but it was a serious offence.

 

Why was an in-direct free kick awarded for the high feet incident in the penalty area? I believe that infringement merits a direct free kick therefore a penalty.

[Guest]

eight quid - rip off. and then they had the cheek to want to charge for a programme; some strange idea of "friendly"

 

Lee Smith is nursing a hamstring

 

Geordie - I belive had other commitments(whatever they are)

 

anyway, sunny day; good first half and the burgers got 8.5 out of 10 from cleggy!