Coggeshall Town picked a fine win on the road against a very tough Woodbridge team. As the match got underway it was clear it probably wasn’t going to be a classic with a strong wind blowing down the pitch and rain threatening from the clouds above. Coggeshall kicked into the breeze first in what started out being a scrappy game with not a lot of quality on show. The opening exchanges were very even with neither team getting control of the fast paced game. As the half went on it was the home team who started to get the better of things pushing ” The Town ” back into their own half regularly. It was tough going for Coggeshall early on but they defended well for long periods to keep a energetic Woodbridge team from scoring. After a while Coggeshall started to get more into the game as Woodbridge eased off and it was the visitors who started to look more dangerous going forward with efforts from Jordan Palmer and Nnamdi Nwachuku both testing the Woodbridge keeper. It was strange as Coggeshall seemed to have weathered the early storm and were looking far more the likely team to score when they actually fell behind. From one of their own attacks the move broke down on the edge of the Woodbridge box from which the home team raced back up the pitch to score from a well worked counter attack to take the lead on the half hour mark. It was disappointing for Coggeshall to concede like that as they had worked so hard to withstand the early Woodbridge pressure. It was end to end after that right up until just before the half time break when “The Town ” got back on level terms. A ball into the Woodbridge box from George Cocklin was won in the air at the far post by Danny Scott who headed down for Jordan Palmer to finish nicely from just inside the penalty area to send the teams in level at 1-1 at half time. The equalising goal just before the break was no more than Coggeshall had deserved after fighting back well after going behind.

The second half got underway with Coggeshall looking full of confidence as they started to take the game to their opponents. After 60 minutes Coggeshall introduced new loan signing Darren Mills into the action, Mills had earlier in the week joined the club from Maldon and Tiptree and immediately started to make an impact with some clever play down the left flank. Mills introduction seemed to give the whole team a lift and at this stage it looked more likely that ” The Town ” would go on a secure all three points.Their was further efforts on the Woodbridge goal this time from Tom Monk and Palmer again but the home team’s keeper kept them out. Coggeshall began to really put the pressure on and their was some last ditch defending from Woodbridge on several occasions to keep the scores level. Nnamdi Nwachuku was fouled from behind just outside the Woodbridge box after he was played in by Matt Southwell and from the resulting freekick Coggeshall took the lead. Nwachuku picked himself up to take the kick and struck it well, round the wall to the keepers left who parried it out to new signing Mills who was following up to head home for a debut goal. With around 15 minutes to go Woodbridge could have given up but they kept going right to the end and only some good defending from the Coggeshall backline and one or two smart saved from Matt Walker kept them from ending up level again.At the other end ” The Town ” had chances to kill the game off but Monk failed to convert on a couple of occasions when put through. The final whistle went giving Coggeshall a hard fought 2-1 away win to keep them on top of the league.

Their wasn’t many standout individual performances as it was a real team effort but Jordan Palmer probably had his best game in a Coggeshall shirt and it was good to see Skipper Luke Clark back in the team after a lengthy lay off. The team are on the road again next week with the long trip to Dereham ahead of them.