Brentwood Academy – 4 Braintree 4’s - 2

This was the first game of three where Brentwood took on Braintree. The mens 2’s would win their match 7-0 and the 1’s would emerge victorious 5-2 but it was the Academy up first with the ‘moving the football goals out of the way’ slot at Becket Keys.

Jake Sanders scored two last week and seemed to be personally affronted by not picking up the man of the match award judging by how he arrived here determined to make amends, but we’ll come back to that.

The Academy looked to continue where they left off last week playing the lower of the Braintree teams in our league. Chris got us set up and issued the instructions, I noted that games against Braintree are always tight, competitive affairs.

I was beginning to doubt my own takes after the Academy made an excellent start. Dominated the early exchanges and found ourselves 2 nil up early. Jake Sanders got both. The relationship that Jake and Alex Hull are building up is joyous. Both displaying sharp intelligent movement and their interplay is excellent – a striking partnership very much on the same page. Both goals were a result of these two bringing havoc to the Braintree back line and linking up together. It was Jake who was in position to take the chances with a couple of magnificent finishes. Why bother hitting the backboard when the corners of the nets are just so much more satisfying.

2-0 up early. We continued to press and seek the fourth. Perhaps we were guilty of being a little to keen to extend the lead. Braintree started to find a bit of space in midfield and to feed their attackers. Errors in distribution or running with the ball and getting picked off started to have the feel of potentially being costly. Whilst there were no clear-cut chances created, there were enough warning shots for us to take note. But we didn’t take note and we left Braintree back into it. An excellent reverse hit shot that was struck perfectly left Arwyn James with no chance. Put frankly we didn’t have enough of our players working back.

We regathered our thoughts and forced a couple of short corners. The first was slipped back to the injector, a shot hit the Braintree keeper and cue a mad scramble for the ball that eventually resulted in a Braintree defender foot. Another short. This time Rob Sanders, obviously feeling the need to step up out of the shadow of his son, dragged into the top left-hand corner, just clipping the keepers stick as it flew past him.
Back to having a 2-goal advantage you’d have thought we would have had muscle memory of what we needed to do. But Braintree came back at us and forced an overload and made no mistake, more sharp finishing.

The break was based on trying to get our defensive organisation improved. We were showing plenty of promise and threat attacking but needed to tighten up. Get the next goal was the call.

It didn’t take long. Rob Sanders got the ball out wide and was given far too much time to work his way into the D. Even in the D the Braintree defence didn’t appear to be bothered and it became a face off between Rob and the Braintree ‘keeper, with a tight angle Rob made no mistake squeezing the ball in high to the keepers left.

4-2 but the half time talk made a difference. This time the work rate going backwards was higher and we limited space and chances. The game remained competitive, and no quarter was asked nor given. No major clear-cut chances were created, the Academy had a few shorts but Braintree had nothing of note. They kept going though even moving into the final minutes they were refusing to give up on the possibility of getting at least a point. As Chris pointed out at the end, winning is great but winning knowing you’ve put in a proper shift is even better.

It will take something similar next week as we go away to Braintree to face their 3's. I'm sure Braintree will be keen to get a least one win against a Brentwood team chalked up.

Finally, a note on Simon Roffe making his first start in his 37th season as a Brentwood player. Incredible service. He certainly retains the ability to keep all in front of him on their toes.

Team: Arwyn James, Fraser McLauchlan, Simon Roffe, Chris Minor, James McKay, Gary MacDonnell, Frank Edwards, Samuel Anderson, Rob Sanders, Jake Sanders, Alex Hull, Doug Muncey, Isaac Minor, Max Bakal.

Man of the Match: Jake Sanders.