South Woodham Ferrers Utd 1st 2 - 4 Leigh Town Sunday 1st

Our Sundays 1sts continued pre-season preparations, getting back to their winning ways against a strong South Woodham side.

We certainly started off the game on the back foot, looking disjointed and struggling to find our rhythm, with South Woodham starting off with great pressing and composed passing and taking a deserved lead through a long range effort. Whilst we created chances and even hit the post, we lacked the killer instinct needed and things then went from bad to worse as they won, and clinically converted, a somewhat questionable penalty. Thankfully we managed to pull back one before half time from a long range free kick from Perry, and went into half time at 2-1 down but with the fire finally lit.

With a few changes and a chance to fix the holes in our setup, we went out into the second half and started to take control from the off - defensively composed, controlling the middle and causing havoc with our attacking runs and passing. We soon equalised through a penalty (although about as questionable as the one in the first half if we’re honest!) won by Theo and dispatched by Aawaiz, before soon taking the lead as Jacob made an excellent run through and cooly placed it into the bottom corner. Whilst Woodham fought admirably and did certainly test us at times, we deservedly put the game to bed after a classy through ball from Mason put Josh W in on goal, cutting in side and finishing emphatically.

Very happy to be going home with a win against a very good side, and tons of positives to take - the return of the skipper Cal making a huge difference in suring us up defensively, Aawaiz having a worldie of a performance and a very rare goal, superb midfield contributions from Perry and Jacob, and with Josh W and Theo being absolute menaces to the opposition defence.

Our pre-season comes to a finish next week away to Wickford & Runwell, can’t wait for the season to kick off now!

#UpTheTown