Bostik Premier League
BILLERICAY TOWN 5 LOWESTOFT TOWN 0
Phoenix FM’s JOHN CHUBB reporting from the AGP Arena
Billericay Town scored a comprehensive victory over Lowestoft Town this evening, in spite of a pitch and weather conditions that made the task of playing quality football difficult for both teams.
Changes were made from the Blues side that lined up in the 2-2 draw away to the Metropolitan Police on Saturday, a performance described by head coach Harry Wheeler as ‘terrible’. Calum Butcher, Robbie Evans and Nick Wheeler were rested (although former Wrexham man Evans started on the bench) and Sam Deering, Danny Waldren and Billy Bricknell returned to the starting line up.
Blues got off to a flying start with only two minutes on the clock, Deering the scorer.
Deering came close to adding to his tally eight minutes later, but his shot was blocked, and on 14 minutes a Bricknell shot went wide as Ricay continued to push forward. He also went close on 21 minutes, firing a shot over the bar after being laid on by Ricky Modeste, who was causing Lowestoft problems with his pacy runs on the right flank.
On 38 minutes leading Billericay marksman Jake Robinson had his first real chance of the game, and managed a powerful shot on goal but the Trawlerboys’ goalkeeper Ben Dudzinksi did well to block it.
Billericay owner/manager Glenn Tamplin – making his first appearance at a match for some weeks – and Wheeler made two changes for the start of the second half, Modeste (who had taken a knock) and Jamie O’Hara making way for Matt Paine and Sanchez Watt.
And former Arsenal midfielder Watt made an immediate impact straight after the restart, with a powerful shot that Dudzinksi had to be alert to stop. Then on 49 minutes Waldren’s close range strike made it 2-0 to the home side.
Then on 61 minutes, following a foul Blues win a free kick on the left edge of the penalty box. Deering took an inswinger which was on target. Dudzinksi managed to push the ball away but Bricknell netted the rebound to make it 3-0 to the home side.
Then after 68 minutes the consistently lively Deering increased the scoreline to 4-0, finishing off an excellent run into the box by slotting the ball past Dudzinksi and into the net.
Deering was then on hand to lay on the ball for Jake Robinson in the 72nd minute, and Blues’ top scorer made no mistake as he was in target for his 45th goal of the season, and put the home side 5-0 up.
Paine wasn’t far away from making it 6-0 once the game went into injury time but his effort was saved by Dudzinksi.
So Billericay extended their lead at the top of the table to four points and by the end were cruising against the Suffolk side, who rarely looked like scoring.
Billericay Town: Alan Julian, Joe Kizzi, Josh Urquhart, Danny Waldren, Rob Swaine, Sam Deering, Ricky Modeste (Matt Paine 46), Jamie O’Hara (Sanchez Watt 46), Billy Bricknell, Jake Robinson, Adam Cunnington (Robbie Evans 63).
Lowestoft Town: Ben Dudzinksi, Daniel Humphreys, Harry Barker, Jacek Zielonka, Rory McAuley, Travis Cole (Adam Smith 49), Harvey Hood (Emmanuel Machaya 79), Robert Eagle, Jake Reed, Matthew Foy, Shaun Bammant.
Attendance: 643
After the final whistle I spoke with Glenn Tamplin, who paid tribute to head coach Harry Wheeler.
“Harry’s been doing a tremendous job…he’s an amazing manager, an amazing person, and I’ve got such a good friend in Harry”.
Talking about the nights performance by his players, Tamplin said: “As Harry said, they just didn’t turn up on Saturday so tonight was about making a statement, showing me how much they want it and showing Harry how much they want it…so I’m very proud of the boys, difficult surface, difficult conditions and they dug in and did very well”.
I asked him whose performances stood out for him, and he singled out Sam Deering and Danny Waldren:
“Sam (Deering) was tremendous today. Danny Waldren was incredible as well, breaking everything down winning everything in the air, and I couldn’t actually pick man of the match tonight (so) Sammy Deering and Danny Waldren were both joint man of the match”.
“But everyone on that pitch played well…(we) didn’t carry anyone”, said Tamplin.