Isthmian North
Brentwood Town 3 Maldon & Tiptree 2
JOHN CHUBB at the Brentwood Centre Arena
@JohnCphoenixfm
Promotion hopefuls Brentwood Town moved up to third place in the Isthmian North, as they claimed all three points against Maldon & Tiptree in a well-attended Friday night encounter.
Brentwood took the lead in the 10th minute after visiting goalkeeper Luca Collins failed to clear a Wyan Reid cross, before Mehki McKenzie rounded him and placed the ball into the net to make it 1-0 to the hosts.
But seven minutes later the Jammers were back in the match, mounting an attack which resulted in George Smith firing the ball past Blues goalkeeper Melvin Minter to level the scores.
Then after the restart, there was huge controversy as McKenzie was fouled whilst bearing down on goal, for which Maldon & Tiptree’s Lewis Jaggs received a straight red card.
Although the foul looked to have been inside the penalty box, referee Daniel Ripton awarded a free kick right on the edge of the area despite the protests of the home players, which was fired over the bar by Shad Ngandu.
Blues had a few other chances to score during the first half, none more so than just before the interval when Andrew Freeman – in front of goal – narrowly failed to connect with another Reid cross from the right, and so the score remained 1-1 at the interval.
Brentwood were the side very much in command early in the second half, and their dominance paid off in the 58th minute, after they were awarded a free kick right on the edge of the area.
Freeman’s superb effort curled round the Jammers’ wall and past Collins into the left-hand corner, and Keith Rowland’s side were back in front.
Then with 19 minutes remaining, a powerful strike by the impressive Reid made it 3-1, and by this point it looked increasingly unlikely that the opposition would find their way back into the match.
And just after the game entered injury time, Brentwood nearly had a fourth goal when a cross from Marlon Agyakwa found Ngandu at the far post, who narrowly missed.
Then with four minutes of time added on, Harry Honesty pulled one back for the visitors with a header, but they didn’t have time to create anything further, so the Blues took all three points and have another big match on Tuesday night, when they host fellow high-flyers Bowers & Pitsea.
Maldon & Tiptree dropped to ninth place, and with just one victory from their last six league matches and 8 games remaining their chances of reaching the play-offs this season now look rather slim.
Brentwood Town (Manager: Keith Rowland) – Melvin Minter, Jonathan Nzengo, Tom Stephen, James Lowe, Matt Cripps, Romel Aarona Royal, Wyan Reid (Daniel Ogunleye 77), Shad Ngandu, Mekhi McKenzie (Marlon Agyakwa 84), George Sykes (Alex Akrofi 77), Andrew Freeman.
Maldon & Tiptree (Manager: Liam Bailey): Luca Collins, Matthew Yates, Alfie Mason, Jayden Gipson, Lewis Jaggs, Milton Oni, Adeteye Gbadehan (Harrison Chatting 72), Hakeem Sandah, Louis Britton (Harry Honesty 84), George Smith (Harry Phillips 64), Terrell Egbri.
Referee: Daniel Ripton
Attendance: 406
