Brentwood Town  3-2  Heybridge Swifts

Maidenhead United  3-2  Billericay Town

Lowestoft Town  0-0  East Thurrock United

Accrington Stanley  1-1  Southend United

Dagenham & Redbridge  1-0  Cheltenham Town

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FULL TIME:  And after such a dire first half, the second was a cracker.  Credit to Heybridge, they showed why they are so high in the table.  But Brentwood showed the guts and werewithal to hang in there.  This win is the mark of a play-off contender.

In the end, it’s been fun, so until the next time, enjoy your weekend, and your football.

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Injury time:  And my battery’s almost run out.  Ulp,  Could still be another goal in this one as well.  Crumbs.

85th min – GOAL! ….. BRENTWOOD TOWN 3,  Heybridge Swifts 2  From another free kick, delivered perfectly by Ryan Doyle, SAM WEST heads home.

Oh yes!

84th min – From a Brentwood free kick on the right, Abs Thompson goes down under pressure inside the area.  Far too easily, though, and the ref rightly waves the appeals aside.

81st min – More injury time to be added, this time for Richard Wray, who took a knock when coming out to the edge of his area, saving a shot that the lino had given offside for in any case.

76th min – Haven’t missed too much other than Greg Cohen taking an air shot, hurting himself, and ripping his shorts.  Worthy of a double chortle, that.

70th min – GOAL! ….. BRENTWOOD TOWN 2,  Heybridge Swifts 2  A corner on the right is met by DARREN BLEWITT and he heads home from six yards.

Game on!

68th min – Brentwood try to draw level.  First of all, Abs Thompson dribbles inside the box, gets his centre in, and a goalbound Alex Read shot is blocked, then from another break, keeper Nicky Eyre saves bravely on the edge of the area from a Sam Bantick run and shot.  Much better now.

62nd min – GOALS! …..Brentwood Town 1,  HEYBRIDGE SWIFTS 2  And it’s SOLOMON OFORI who’s the hero of the hour, on the hour.  Two shots, two parries by Richard Wray, and two simple tap-ins.

Livened up no end now.  Hurrah!

58th min – Ooh, that was a close to an equaliser, Luke Callender’s free kick on in a central left position, 22 yards out, sneaking just past the near post.

57th min – Play has improved, it has to be said, but nothing clear cut.  The odd corner from Heybridge well defended, and the odd Brentwood breakaway stopped by a foul.

50th min – Swifts sub Reece Morgan, on for Taylor Hastings, tries a shot from about 25 yards, that hits the corrugated iron behind the sofa at the Doddinghurst Road End.  Hmmm.

4.04pm – Kick Off!  Please let it be better this time around.

In the meantime, Steve Butterworth, who picked up a knock in that foul just before the break, has been replaced by Sam Bantick.

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HALF TIME:  And thank goodness for that.  There’s been so little incident and action I thought I was watching an England match.  Riveting is hardly the word, something that Joe has said in deep irony.  Things can only get better.  And at least Brentwood are ahead.

Right, off for a Bovril and a Red Bull or 6.  Laters.

44th min – Wow, that really should have been 2-0.  A melee on the edge of the box, Abs Thompson tries a shot at goal, it’s blocked, but the ball goes to Abs Seymour.  With the goal open, though, he somehow shoots over from 15 yards.  Arrrrrrgggggghhhhh!

43th min – Ouch.  Baimass Lette Jallow clouts Steve Butterworth on the edge of the Swifts penalty area.  The ref decides against a yellow, though, as it would take him 20 minutes to write the name out.  The free kick comes to nothing.

40th min – Much better from Swifts there, though.  Malton got a couple of accurate crosses in, a couple of corners were forced, and Luke Callender had an on-target shot inside the area blocked.  In reply, Abs Thompson has a shot from 25 yards that sails over the far.  That’s a bit better, chappies.

37th min – The Heybridge Swifts supporters are getting annoyed at the right midfielder Russell Malton, who has developed an uncanny knack of falling over when putting a cross in that goes way over the dead ball line.  Brentwood, however, seem intent on conceding fouls when they have a corner, or letting it be easily defended.  Not the best of games as yet.

32nd min – Ooh, that was close to 2-0.  Nice little break down the right, a through ball puts in Steve Butterworth, and Swifts keeper Nicky Eyre does well to come out and block on the edge of the area.  But hurrah, a modicum of excitement.

27th min – Frankly, it’s been poor so far.  Passes going astray, complimented with hopeful punts in the air.  The only thing close to a shot, from Heybridge, almost made the A12.  Not quite the cracker we looked forward to thus far.

20th min – Oops.  A poorly directed backpass from Ryan Doyle almost lets in Heybridge’s Luke Callender.  He puts it past keeper Richard Wray on the left, but also well beyond the far post, and the Brentwood defence clear.  Bit of a let-off, that, though.

19th min – Abs Thompson is getting a bit of success down the right, and his trickery has forced a corner or two.  They’ve been easily dealt with, though, much to the frustration of the Brentwood dugout.  I can hear the swearys from here.  Ooh, deary me.

15th min – Big appeal from Swifts for a penalty, claiming Ryan Doyle had handled in the area, but the shout was more in hope than expectation, and the ref rightly waves play on.

13th min – I’m catching all the boring bits.  Play was held up for a bit to treat an injury, no harm done though, and play has resumed.  The ref seems to like the sound of his own whistle.  Which isn’t a euphemism.

7th min – GOAL! ….. BRENTWOOD TOWN 1,  Heybridge Swifts 0  In time honoured tradition, I never saw STEVE BUTTERWORTH open the scoring, but Joe did.

Liquid football!

6th min – What can I say?  Nothing.  Russell Malton has made a couple of half decent runs for Heybridge on the right, but nothing created by either side so far.  Lots of shouty people and earnest urges of encouragement.  The crowd, though, looks up from Tuesday’s turnout, so good news already.

3.01pm – KICK OFF!  Oh yes!

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2.57pm – The teams come out to an expectant and excited silence

2.55pm – Quite a crowd building up.  But only in and around the press box.  Just as well Joe and I got here early.  Getting the odd glare from others because we occupy the two seater press box.  Chortle.  The pitch itself is sandy in parts, looks like tractor tyre marks in the centre of it, but otherwise seems fine.  Someone here obviously likes Bon Jovi.  Ah well.  We have our crosses to bear.

2.50pm – Team News:  The Brentwood Town line-up is:

1. – Richard Wray

2. – Ryan Doyle (c)

3. – Sam Cross

4. – Greg Cohen

5. – Darren Blewitt

6. – Sam West

7. – Abs Thompson

8. – Gary Henty

9. – Alex Reade

10. – Steve Butterworth

11. – Abs Seymour

Subs:

12. – Ross Wall

14. – Lewis Frost

15. – Martyn Stokes

16. – Sam Bantick

17. – Ted Llewellyn

So latest signing Gary Henty, from Tilbury, makes his debut.  Ex Rocks custodian Richard Wray also plays his first Saturday game for Brentwood.  It looks a pretty strong team to me.  But then what do I know, I think Ross County could be in Europe next season …..

2.45pm – Elsewhere, Billericay Town are in dire need of more points.  Four from their last two matches hasn’t stopped them sliding into the Conference South relegation zone.  Again, their style of play was called into question after their excellent point at Chelmsford the other night.  But when you’re fighting a relegation battle, it’s results first, performances a distant second.

East Thurrock United, on the other hand, are ticking over comfortably in mid-table.  They face a tough task on the Suffolk coast but Covo’s boys are just the sort to upset the odds.  And after today they have only a piffling 20 games left.

At least it means that when the warm spring weather arrives (or less cold, to be more precise), we’ll have plenty of evenings to while away at the football, after the barren start to 2013.  Hurrah!

2.40pm – Ooh, it’s been a long ol’ time, innit.  Far too long.  But, at last again, a  very good afternoon, today from a chilly Arena, as we take in the next thrilling instalment of Brentwood Town‘s play-off charge.

Even after today’s game, the hosts have another 23 games to fit into the next 11 weeks.  Over half a season in less than 3 months makes it a tall order to retain any sort of consistency.  But this Brentwood side are good.  Very good.

Today’s visitors, however are riding high.  Heybridge are second, eight places and 17 points above their opponents.  But Brentwood Town have an eye-popping eight games in hand on them.  It makes today a real six pointer.  Yet another cracker is in prospect.

As ever, keep refreshing the page every few minutes, and the thrilling and the spilling of an afternoon at the football will be yours, all yours.