Fixture Focus: Rayleigh A vs Witham Town A

All the action from a ding-dong battle at Chichester Playing Fields.

Rayleigh FC A 2-4 Witham Town A

After a first half of few chances, the home side led 1-0 at the break courtesy of a well-worked team goal in the 23rd minute. Rayleigh built up the play nicely with some excellent passing in the midfield, before switching the ball out to the right-hand flank, where the winger’s pinpoint cross was delivered and emphatically headed home from 12-yards by Calum Bailey.

HT: 1-0

The teams struggled to play their football on a windy day and half-time provided a much-needed opportunity for both sides to re-think their approach. The opening stages of the second half saw the teams make a concerted effort to keep the ball on the floor and take a more cautious approach in the build-up.

However, this conservative approach lasted for just the first 15 minutes of the second half – at which point the game opened up into a barmy end-to-end affair which saw four goals scored in the space of ten minutes.

Witham equalised in the 61st minute with an incise counter-attack which caught Rayleigh napping following a corner kick. Witham central midfielder Charlie York had just one defender to beat on the edge of the penalty area; after a moment’s hesitation it looked like the chance may have petered out, however he skilfully managed to work the ball back onto his left foot, wrong-footing his man, and curled it into the far top corner from 18 yards, leaving the goalkeeper with no chance. With the score now 1-1, the game came to life.

The visitors had to wait just three minutes for their next goal, and it was a moment to forget for the Rayleigh defence. The ball was pumped long by Witham and there was a mix up between goalkeeper and defence for Rayleigh, which ended up with a central defender heading the ball over his onrushing goalkeeper from the edge of the penalty area. Despite appearing to be destined for the net, the goalkeeper recovered well and bravely scooped the ball off the line, but it was bundled in by Witham’s Alfie Holt on the rebound to make it 2-1 to the visitors after 63 minutes.

Just four minutes later and Witham had a third after Mackenzie Saunders’ deflected effort from twenty yards evaded the diving Rayleigh goalkeeper, to make the score 3-1 with 68 minutes on the clock.

At this point, Witham were happy to defend deeper in effort to restore some sense of calm to the game, however their resolve lasted just two minutes as an incisive Rayleigh through-ball broke the lines, leaving the pacy Benjamin Robinson with just the goalkeeper to beat. He slotted the chance away emphatically to make it 3-2, and Rayleigh had a lifeline with 20 minutes remaining.

Rayleigh had their tails up now and were looking increasingly dangerous, committing numbers forward as they pushed on in search of an equaliser, but Witham held their nerve and managed to seal the three points in the 81st minute with a swift counter-attack, which saw striker Alfie Holt make no mistake from close range, grabbing his second goal of the game and leaving the score 4-2.

FT: 2-4

All-in-all, it was a highly competitive game with plenty of action, which serves as a great advertisement for the Mid-Essex Football League. The away side travel back to Witham with all three points and find themselves top of the table after the opening five games.