After an unbeaten start to the season, the SeedGrowers travelled to the Brentwood Arena to take on a Brentwood side who have endured a tough start to the season. Graeme Smith made two changes to his starting eleven from Monday’s win over Great Wakering Rovers, with Tyler Brampton and Michael Gyasi returning to the starting eleven, resulting in David Agboola and Mehki McLeod missing out.

The visitors started the game in impressive fashion and created a host of chances, without beating Tim Brown in the home goal. It didn’t however, take Coggeshall long to open the scoring. A ball over the top of the defence found Nnamdi Nwachuku, in trademark style, Nwachuku dribbled at the defence, beat the defender with a sublime bit of skill before sending his shot beyond Brown at the near post and in to the goal – Brown perhaps should’ve kept the shot out of his goal.

With Brentwood struggling to get to the grips with Coggeshall’s attacking force, Smith’s side continued to create chance after chance. Conor Hubble almost made it two-nil, however Brown redeemed himself with a fine diving save to deny Hubble from the edge of the box.

Against the run of play, the home side almost equalised against the run of play as after a string of corners, a header rebounded off the cross bar. As the half neared the end, Brentwood started to grow in to the game and had a succession of corners as they put the SeedGrowers under pressure. However, the Town continued to stand tall and strong, led by the impressive Joshua Pollard in defence.

HALF TIME: Brentwood Town 0-1 Coggeshall Town

The second half started in the same fashion as the first, with Coggeshall continuing to be wasteful in front of goal. Gyasi had the first chance of the half, however he was unable to make the most of his opportunity and he blazed his chance over the bar. After another smart counter attack, Gyasi had another chance. After good play from Wall, the ball landed the feet of Gyasi who took one touch before sending his effort over the goal again – Coggeshall somehow, still only led by a goal to nil.

As the home side were fortunate to still be in the game, they started to create chances of their own as Ashlee Jones was required to make his first save of the afternoon to keep his clean sheet in tact. Gyasi then had another chance, but hit his effort straight at the grateful Brown. Jones was then called in to action again, and after his initial mistake, made a good save to keep the score at one-nil.

In attempts to manage the game and to secure three points, Gyasi and Nwachuku were replaced by Aryton Coley and Tom Blackwell. Blackwell almost scored his first goal for the club as he made an immediate impact. His tenacious work down the left hand side allowed him to dribble at the defence, before creating a bit of space to shoot. However, Brown was on hand to make a smart diving save. Brown was called upon again, as he made a save with his legs to deny a free kick from Hubble. In the dying embers, Brentwood thought they’d snuffed out an equaliser as the ball ended up in the back of the net, however the goal was ruled out for offside as the SeedGrowers executed a superb offside trap.

FULL TIME: Brentwood Town 0-1 Coggeshall Town

Attendance: 120

Brentwood Town:

Tim Brown, Zak Pianim, Ide Osimeh, Junior Baker, James Pugsley, Jack Dickinson, Bobby Vaughan, Connor Hogan, Jason Williams, Marcus Milner, Jacob Wiggins.

Substitutes:

Brenden Cavalier, Theo Ward-Malcolm, Ryan O’Rawe, Khadean Campbell, Bailey Stevenson.

Coggeshall Town:

Ashlee Jones, Tyler Brampton, Curtis Haynes-Brown, Matt Lock, Dexter Peter, Joshua Pollard, Michael Gyasi, Tevan Allen, Nnamdi Nwachuku, Ross Wall, Conor Hubble.

Substitutes:

David Agboola, Matt Walker, Tom Blackwell, Aryton Coley, Daniel Cunningham.