26th March 2022
Brandon Town vs Wells Town @ Brandon Remembrance Playing Fields - Brandon
Anglian Combination Division One (Step 8)
14:30 KO
Free entry
Attendance - approx. 50-60
Half-time score: Brandon Town 2-0 Wells Town
Goals:
Brandon Town: Green - 1' (P)
Brandon Town: Green - 45' + 3
Wells Town: Harrison - 57'
Final Score: Brandon Town 2-1 Wells Town
With perfect sunny late March weather, and crystal blue skies, having spent the morning re-felting the shed roof, I decided to make the short trip up to Brandon Town for some Anglian Combination football. It had been a few month since I last saw Brandon, where they relinquished a 3-0 lead at Watton, and in that time a lot has changed. Manager Will Farthing had stepped down, and with that, many of the familiar players left, many of which finding their way down the road at Mundford, including Jack Slater, Ryan Billmen and Michael Corbyn, I also spotted Kieran Bruce at Swaffham recently when watching Thetford Town. I was intrigued to see how the new team was gelling after a good win against Attleborough Town. Brandon Town faced a tough test today, hosting Wells Town, a team in 7th position before kick-off. However, Wells' seasons was basically over, being realistically too far away from promotion, and miles away from the drop-zone, whereas Brandon are battling near the bottom of the division, so the desire should be there, meaning a result was possible.
Brandon Town got off to the perfect start, on the 30 second mark, Hunter burst into the box and was brought down, the referee making no hesitation to point to the spot. Captain Green stood up and quickly slotted the ball to the right of the keeper to make it 1-0 to Brandon in the first minute.
Brandon were looking good for their lead, and were having the better position and play. As time went on, Wells began to play themselves into the game, and had a strong 10 minute spell where they should have really scored an equaliser. In the 17th minute, Sparrow stepped up for a free-kick on the edge of the box, the strike was good, and looked to be heading for top corner, but it skimmed off the top of the wall and narrowly went over for a corner. From this, there was a goalmouth scramble which resulted in a powerful close range strike from Wells, which should have gone in were it not for an excellent diving save from Brandon keeper Wing. In the 25th minute, Brewster played Willis through on goal, he was 1-on-1 but scuffed his shot and it travelled harmlessly to Wing. In the 26th minute, Briggs attacked down the left, switched the ball across for the No. 7 whose shot across goal went just wide of the far post.
Having weathered the pressure, Brandon began to have another good spell, but they were struggling with the final ball. In the 32nd minute, Wells attacked again, Brewster ran through the centre of the defence, made room for a strike on the edge of the box, but his effort went wide. With the second half coming to an end, Brandon's Will Martin showed clear desire to chase a ball that was being marshalled out for a goal-kick, he got a leg behind the player to nick it, he played the ball back to Hunter, who was in support, and with his first touch he whipped a brilliant ball to the far post that was met by a Josh Green bullet header to emphatically put Brandon 2-0 up going into the second half.
In the second half, Wells came out hard, but wave after wave of attack was being cut out early, and they began to get frustrated, and it did not take long until the No. 7 was sin binned for dissent in the 50th minute. Despite being down to 10-men, Wells were able to peg Brandon back a goal, in the 57th minute, a long ball caught out the Brandon defence, and as they were frantically back tracking, Brewster took the ball forwards, and at the edge of the box slid in Harrison who, with acres of space and time, easily passed the ball into the gapping net.
For the next 10 minutes, the game was even, with both defences holding firm, but Wells kicked it up a notch and had another dangerous spell. The best chance came in the 71st minute, a quickly taken free-kick found Willis through on goal, he performed a neat cut back to open even more space, and from what looked to be an easy goal, he somehow hit the post and to rub salt into the wound, substitute Smith completely missed the ricochet, much to the delight of the Brandon fans.
In the 72nd minute, with Wells in the ascendancy, they lost their heads again and this time the No. 6 was sin binned for dissent, although I was distracted by my 6-month old daughter, and according to the stats it looks like Ben Scott may have been sent off. In any case, this swung the momentum in Brandon's favour, and they finished the game strongly, deserving a goal to put the game to bed. In the 79th minute, Will Martin made a great run into the box from the left and fired a low powerful shot in at the near post, but it was pushed away by the keeper for a corner. In the 86th minute, Grimwood was through 1-on-1 with keeper, but there was a bit of confusion and it looked like he thought he was offside and hit a half-hearted attempt wide, but it looked like play was still live, could Brandon come to rue this missed opportunity? In the 88th minute, substitute Goetsch done some good work down the left flank, and a ball in found Will Martin who was open in front of the goal, but his mishit strike went straight to the keeper. In the 91st minute, Grimwood played in Goetsch, the Wells keeper came out quickly, Goetsch tried to round him, but the keeper was able to just about gather the ball and smother it. After 3 nail-biting injury time minutes, Brandon were able to close out the game and claim the valuable 3-points.
That was a really entertaining game, and a great advert for Anglian Combination and amateur league football. This game had it all, an early penalty, an excellently well worked second goal, a second half comeback of sorts, 2 sin-binning's and a nail-biting finish, all whilst standing in the sun with an ice cold lager on the side of the pitch. Although Wells did not have much to play for, after a long journey down to Suffolk, I'm sure they wanted to return with a win, but they did not help themselves with ill-discipline, giving the team ultimately too much to do, and they looked tired by the end of the game. I was impressed with how Brandon took the game to Wells, they never looked comfortable, and based on this performance, I am surprised they are so low in the league, every time I see Brandon Town they seem to play nice attacking football. With any luck, results will continue to see them climb a couple of places in the league allowing them to build for next season. I wish the team all the best, and will hopefully be back soon!
Line-Ups:
BRANDON TOWN: Liam Wing, Charlie Power, Grzegorz Ostrowski, Luke King, Preston Sharpe, Lewis Bishop, Robbie Hunter, Ben Smith, Josh Green (C), Will Martin, Zak Grimwood. SUBS: Reece Goetsch, Tomas Kukuris.
WELLS TOWN (Not in number order): Richard Bond, Ben Cole, Joshua Sparrow, Daniel Jarvis, Daniel Tuddenham, Liam Forge, Ben Scott, Ross Brewster, Joseph Harrison, Korben Willis, Lloyd Briggs. SUBS: James Smith.
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