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Coggeshall Town extended their lead at the top of the table after an entertaining home win against Whitton United. Conditions were excellent at West Street on a crisp day as the match kicked off with both teams looking to continue their own good run of form. Whitton had improved their results a lot in recent weeks after a change of manager and ” The Town” were expecting a tough encounter. The match started at a frantic pace with lots of endeavor from both teams but the quality wasn’t great as neither team getting control of possession. As the half went on it was Coggeshall who finally settled first with Tom Colville and George Cocklin starting to influence things from midfield and Darren Mills and Nnamdi Nwachuku looking dangerous in the front line. The deadlock was broken on 25 minutes after a great ball forward from Colville sent Nwachuku away who beat his defender before playing a neat ball inside to Mills who turned sharply 10 yards out to finish well beating the keeper at the near post. It was a well worked goal and just what the home team deserved after they had started to get on top of the visitors. Coggeshall went further ahead soon after when George Cocklin picked up a loose ball 25 yards out and beat two defenders with an excellent piece of skill to play in Nwachuku who shot from just outside the box to score.” The Town” were now in full flow with Nwachuku and Mills proving a real handful for the Whitton Defenders and it was those two who combined again for the next goal. This time a through pass from Matt Rose allowed Nwachuku to get wrong side of his marker and make ground down the left-hand side, he crossed to the far post where Tom Holdstock won a header which fell to Mills who finished well from close range for his second if the game. That was how the score stayed up to half time with Coggeshall going in satisfied with their 3-0 lead at the break.

Coggeshall came out the blocks a bit slow after the restart and allowed Whitton back into the game conceding two early goals both from slack defending, so at 3-2 it was very much game on as Whitton grew in confidence after being outplayed in the first half. The game soon returned to the earlier pattern with ” The Town” looking in control but the fact they had conceded the two goals Whitton felt they may be able to get something from the game. Coggeshall took a two goal cushion again on 60 minutes after a dangerous looking ball into the Whitton box from Colville was contested by Mills which resulted in Tom Holdstock getting a sight of goal from which he finished well on the angle to put some breathing space into the scoreline for the home team .It was all looking good for the home win at that point but Coggeshall shot themselves in the foot again after conceding a penalty which Whitton scored from to get them within one goal again with the score at 4-3. Coggeshall really had to roll their sleeves up now to put the game to bed, and they did so with a great finish to the game. As the match entered the final stages they started to get on top of a tiring Whitton team who had probably given everything they had to keep coming back.” The Town” finished with a flurry as Nnamdi Nwachuku got clear twice late on to score with excellent finishes for goal numbers 5 and 6 and for him to complete his hatrick to make the final score a comfortable 6-3 victory but it had been close at times during the 90 minutes as Whitton never gave up. The game kept Coggeshall at the top of the league and was entertaining to watch from a fans perspective but the players will be disappointed with the goals they have conceded on the day.

There is no midweek action this week and the team are away at Team Bury next week as we approach the end of the year keen to keep the level of performance as high as possible.