12th October 2021
Mildenhall Town vs Brantham Athletic @ Recreation Way - Mildenhall
Thurlow Nunn Premier League (Step 5)
19:45 KO
£9 entry
Attendance - 113
Half-time score: Mildenhall Town 2-0 Brantham Athletic
Goals:
Mildenhall Town: Butcher - 26'
Mildenhall Town: Call - 38'
Leigh Simons recorded the goals, see the links below:
Final Score: Mildenhall Town 2-0 Brantham Athletic
Although the allure of England vs Hungary was strong, I decided to head out to watch some live non-league football, I could always keep an eye on the score. Tonight was a good opportunity to cover a team based in The Brecks that I had not yet been to this season, and that team is Mildenhall Town, a club with a good pedigree, having played in Step 4 a few seasons back, and with clear aspirations to return. Mildenhall are so far having a good season, sitting 5th but with 4 games in hand over leaders Gorleston, and they have notably beaten Wroxham twice already this season, and Tanner Call spectacularly scored six against Swaffham Town recently. In stark contrast, opponents for tonight, Brantham Athletic, have been enduring a poor start to the season that culminated in a loss against pointless Swaffham Town on the weekend, a low point for sure. Despite this, Brantham are a decent side, so I was expecting a reaction from them and a good footballing contest.
I have been to Recreation Way before, it is an interesting ground nestled in the back corner of Sainsbury car park, with plenty of shelters, a big club house and a great looking playing surface. Of course, I picked up a programme, see below:
This was a another good Barnes Print programme, with lots of content and a great introduction from the Chairman of Mildenhall Town.
Mildenhall Town, shooting down the hill, came out of the traps fast, and played probably the best opening 10 minutes of football that I have seen so far this season, they were relentless in their attack on the Brantham goal. In the 4th minute, a Mildenhall corner was taken short and Coakley drove the ball into the box low and hard, it was begging for the faintest of touches, but was deflected wide and out for a corner. In the resultant corner, the ball was half-cleared, Green recycled the ball by dinking it back into the box and Butcher flicked the ball on towards goal but it was scrambled clear off the line. In the 6th minute, Mildenhall took a quick free-kick, allowing Weavers time and space on the left wing to whip in a brilliant cross towards Call, but it shaved his head and went wide. Brantham had somehow weathered the opening storm, and the initial high intensity from Mildenhall began to dip.
Nevertheless, Mildenhall were still very much on top and continued to carve out chance after chance. In the 13th minute, a flick on from Call put Chaplin directly through on goal, but just as he was about to pull the trigger he was dispossessed by some fantastic last-gasp defending. In the 16th minute, Call managed to steal possession deep in Brantham territory, he quickly cracked off a shot but it was blocked by a Brantham defender. In the 21st minute, Chaplin crossed a good ball into the box but Call's header was underpowered and easily collected by Plummer, the Brantham goalkeeper.
Against the run of play, Brantham actually went the closest to the opener so far, from a deep cross the ball was mishandled by the keeper and fell to Bloom who struck the ball first time, but it was always curling away from goal and hit the inside of the post and into the path of a Mildenhall defender to clear. Although Brantham were playing themselves more into the game, Mildenhall were still creating the better chances, and in the 25th minute, there was a quick break down the right from Manels, he crossed the ball in to Call but his header sailed over. Mildenhall won a corner in the 26th minute, and Coakley whipped in the perfect ball for captain Butcher to attack, he rose high and powered his header into the goal to finally break the deadlock, 1-0 to Mildenhall.
After the goal, Brantham pushed higher up the pitch and were able to contain Mildenhall for long periods, but this left them exposed at the back and in the 38th minute, Coakley drove a low ball down the left for Call to chase, he got hold of the ball, ran towards goal, cut across the first defender, then the second, then the third, where he now found himself in a more or less central position, and having created some space he struck the ball from the edge of the area and directed it into the top corner with a fine strike, an excellent solo goal and 2-0 to Mildenhall.
The final five minutes of the first half were more even, in the 41st minute, Williams found Bloom whose first time shot for Brantham was fired straight at the keeper. Shortly afterwards, Mildenhall had a shot on target of their own, Green striking from at least 25 yards out that required a decent save from Plummer to deny the goal. Finally, in the 43rd minute, Lawson made a good run down the left for Brantham, he put the ball in for Williams who tried to flick it on but it was collected by Pope, in goal for Mildenhall, and with that it was half-time.
Brantham, now shooting downhill, were clearly given a rocket at half-time, and it was their turn to start brightly, nearly scoring within 30 seconds. A good attack down the right resulted into a ball into the box that was poorly cleared, the ball fell to captain Boyland on the edge of the box who struck a volley goal-bound, but it was close to goalkeeper Pope, and he managed to pull off a good reaction save to deny Brantham a dream start to the half. Brantham were playing a lot better, and in the 53rd minute, a long ball found Lawson down the left wing, he beat his man, and tried to cut across to create space for a shot, reminiscent of the Tanner Call goal in the first half, but his strike was not as clean as Tanner's and his eventual effort went wide. In the 56th minute, a low driven ball across from the box from striker Bloom just required the faintest of touches but the ball eluded everybody.
Mildenhall Town were creating less upfront, but had the perfect opportunity to put the game to bed, they were awarded a corner in the 57th minute, and from this a low diving header from Phillips at the near post was saved, Brantham tried to clear but Mildenhall won back possession, sent the ball across the goal and Green smashed his effort into the bar. In between this chance, and another one for Mildenhall, Brantham managed a shot on target, Williams fighting hard to win a long ball and having a crack from long range, but it was comfortably saved. In the 67th minute, substitute Brown done some good work down the left to release Call who ran down the left flank and cut in, he fired a shot across the goal, beat the keeper, but it hit post and rebounded out. Another substitute, Nolan, collected the ball, cut across to shoot but his effort was blocked by a defender at the far post, the ricocheted ball flew high into the air and fell to Brown who's well struck volley was saved by the keeper who had done well to get across the goal, a frantic 10 seconds with Brantham clutching on with some great last ditch defending.
In the 70th minute, Brantham player Hughes was sin binned for dissent and this initiated an odd 10 minutes of football. Mildenhall looked to capitalise with their man advantage, and in the 74th minute, Call passed back to Yallop, he had a bit of space and time and fired off a powerful and accurate strike that looked to be in were it not for a top draw fingertip save from Plummer, with the Mildenhall attackers unable to put the rebound away. In the 76th minute, Brantham lost their discipline completely, winger Lawson also being sin-binned for dissent. He made a charging run down the left flank, and was certainly pulled a few times by the Mildenhall defenders, and when he was finally dispossessed near the corner flag he said a few choice words to the referee causing the sin binning. Following this there was an odd few minutes that culminated in the Brantham manager Michael Brothers being sent off having received a second yellow card for dissent, followed by an unusual situation where the Brantham physio was on the receiving end of a straight red card, also for dissent.
Following the drama, the end of the game was rather scrappy, although to be fair, Brantham did regroup well and had the best of the possession and territory despite the sin binnings. Mildenhall went into cruise control and saw the game out, the only notable chance for Brantham coming in the 92nd minute, a shot from Williams drawing a save from Pope. In the dying embers of the game, Mildenhall almost got their third of the night, a long ball from Weavers found Call in front of goal, and despite pressure from a defender, he found the room to squeeze off a shot, but it went wide, and that was it for this game.
That was a very entertaining and dramatic game, well worth the entry fee. The damage was done by Mildenhall in the first half, although Brantham done really well to only concede 2, and credit to them, they played themselves back into the game, and if it were not for the disappointing ill discipline, a comeback could have been on. Having said that, Mildenhall barely got going in the second half and cruised for large parts of the game, and comfortably collected the 3 points to move up to 4th in the table, keeping the pressure up on Gorleston & Wroxham. I am planning to see the local FA Vase derby against Lakenheath next weekend, and Mildenhall are also due to visit Mundford Road in Thetford at the end of the month, for another local derby, so I will be seeing them a lot in October, and I'm looking forward to the prospect. They are a well drilled, fast and exciting team to watch, I can see why they are one of the front runners this season.
Line-Ups:
MILDENHALL TOWN: Josh Pope, Matthew Green, Darryl Coakley, Luke Butcher (C), Ryan Yallop, Casey Phillips, Scott Chaplin, Alex Steed, Tanner Call, Kaine Manels, Phillip Weavers. SUBS: Dan Brown, Tom Walters, Charlie Hitch, Ben Nolan.
BRANTHAM ATHLETIC: Andrew Plummer, Nathan Rowe, Tom Lawson, Craig Hughes, Jack Sibbons, Sean Stephenson, Jack Madley, Pip Boyland (C), Louie Bloom, Darnell Williams, James Lee. SUBS: Liam Riley, Kieran Lawler, Harry Glen, John Watkins.
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