The Men's 4s finally got our season moving in the right direction with a comprehensive victory over Braintree 2s. In stark contrast to last weeks weather we arrived at the Four Releet ground bathed in tropical sunshine, and to be honest we started the first half like we'd prefer to be sunbathing. If fact after 10 minutes poor Gavin Southgate took a couple of minutes flat on his back in the middle of the pitch after a recurrence of a troublesome back injury.
He then unfortunately spent the rest of the game sunbathing on the bench. Apparently it only hurt when he moved.
We soaked up plenty of pressure in the first half, alot of it of our own making as we were far to careless with passes in our half of the pitch. Owen and the defense generally coped well, but we had a let off when a Braintree shot from a short corner was ruled out for offside.
Much against the run of play we managed to break quickly and get the ball up to Harry Strickland, who deftly beat a couple of defenders and navigated his way into the D. From there he camly finished in the opposite corner.
Braintree fairly quickly equalised through some neat interplay that didn't give the hard working defense and Owen much of a chance. The rest of the first half was a big defensive effort, with the half time whistle providing some welcome rest bite and a chance to re-hydrate and re-group.
A few stern but encouraging words were provided during the break, and it seemed to have done the trick. We started the half much more brightly, Ian Anderson distributing the ball assuredly from the back and starting some slick passing moves up the right. Great movement from Harry and Stuart Kirk (playing his first game for Brentwood) creating chances and a short corner, but no goals.
A bit like the first half the next goal came against the run of play with some clinical Braintree passing creating a scoring opportunity that again gave Owen no chance in goal.
Then quite frankly my memory goes a little hazy, and at times I doubted what I was seeing. We simply went ballistic, or maybe more accurately the midfield started playing the simple, quick hockey we talk about in every team talk. We made short accurate passes, by passed their midfield. The forwards made great runs and we attacked at speed. Over the next 20 minutes, Logan Holland and Harry Strickland terrorised the Braintree midfield and defense.If Logan wasn't finding Harry and putting him on goal with just the goalie to beat, he was giving him a chance to bamboozle a couple of defenders, and then slot past the keeper.
Harry tucked away 5 goals, all without giving the keeper a sniff and the team one numerous short corners, from which Ian Anderson went close a couple of times before finally striking superbly into the left corner.
The final scoreline flattered us a little as once they were 4-2 down Braintree through caution to the wind and pushed players up the pitch. The back four of Phil Gibbs, Stuart Strickland, Ian Anderson, and Thomas Anderson coped with everything Braintree could come up with and simply started our attacks again through Martin Hastings or Louis Howard.
Overall the second half was pretty much a total team performance, and with luck we can take that form into next week's game.

MotM: Logan (It seems a bit churlish not to give the MoTM to the scorer of six goals, but Logan was instrumental in all but two of them I think.... and Harry tucked away his sixth when Logan was open for a tap in).

Team: Owen Smith, Thomas Anderson, Stuart Strickland, Gavin Southgate, Phil Gibbs, Ian Anderson, Chris Minor, Louis Howard, Martin Hastings, Harry Strickland, Stuart Gibbs.

Scorers: Harry Strickland x6, Ian Anderson