MATCH REPORT
28 October 2006
Essex Olympian League
Senior Division One
White Ensign 2 v Epping 1
Epping made the journey to Southend last Saturday for the top of table clash with league leaders White Ensign, full of confidence after their previous weekends win away to current league champions Harold Wood. The Gaffer kept faith with the same 11 that had started the game against Harold Wood and who had performed so well in the 3-0 win, meaning returning skipper Billy Saunders had to make do with a place on the bench. Epping started brightly and went ahead after only 10 minutes, a corner was cleared out to Danny Hopkins on the edge of the White Ensign box, and he found space for himself before placing his shot into the top right-hand corner. As expected, as current league leaders, Ensign came back at the visitors and equalised 15 minutes later when an inswinging corner from Alan Lynn evaded Epping keeper Jonathan Thomas and curled into the net. The second half was an even and tight affair, Ensign had one clear cut chance but Epping were happy to soak up the pressure and try and catch their opponents on the break which they did on several occasions but failed to create any clear cut chances. Subs. Adam Connolly and Dave Annobil were sent on with 20 minutes to go and immediately livended things up. However, Epping were dealt a cruel blow when in injury time they conceded a debatable corner through which John Wheastone headed home the winner. This was extremely harsh for Epping who had worked hard to get a result and had been the equal of their opponents for most of the game. The Gaffer said "We shot ourselves in the foot with a little bit of naivety. With minutes left on the clock all we had to do was either keep possession or keep the ball in their half. We managed to do neither and then conceded an unnecessary corner through which we let their guy get a clear header in. I was angry with the guys after, not just for the fact that we lost the game in such a manner, but also for them because they had worked so hard for 99% of the game to get a result they didn’t deserve. On a positive though, we are evolving and improving as a side and I think it says much for us, and is a great compliment for the lads, that we have beaten the current league champions comfortably and then have only lost by a fine margin to the current league leaders in the space of 8 days. Hopefully we can maintain the level and even improve on these performances and if we can, then I believe we can have a good season."
Team: Thomas, Bulled, Godwin, Hopkins, Costello, Taaffe, Godden, Conlan, King, Ellice, Rolle. Subs: Annobil, Connolly, Saunders. Scorer: Hopkins.
EPPING FOOTBALL CLUB, STONARDS HILL, TIDYS LANE, EPPING