As soon as Olly Miles doubled Takeley’s lead in the 94th minute, a miserable day was made a lot worse. He had enjoyed a successful season with us last year, ending up as our top scorer, but he was a victim of the summer overhaul at the club.
Miles, a PE teacher at Saffron Walden County High School, ended up at Takeley, and given his connections with the town, it’s almost as if he had bookmarked this fixture as one during which he had to play out of his skin, and subsequently ruin our Non-League Day. I almost hope he has to deal with misbehaving students for the rest of term as they come to terms with the fact that ‘Sir’ has all but ended our hopes of a playoff finish.
Another former Saffron Walden Town player, Jordan Wescott, had given Takeley the lead on the hour mark, and while it was annoying at the time, a goal from a player who only spent six months wearing the red and black stripes pales into insignificance given the identity of the scorer of the second goal.
While Takeley were celebrating a memorable result in a game that commemorated the opening of the brand-new floodlights at Station Road by legendary former England defender Stuart Pearce, spare a thought for the loyal travelling Bloods fans. For us, the feeling of defeat and disappointment is becoming all too familiar and hurts even more given that we were favourites to get promoted before a ball was even kicked this season.
With FA Vase-winning manager Dan Spinks arriving in June and bringing in plenty of big-name players, including some who had enjoyed Essex Senior League success in the past, it was an exciting time to be a Bloods fan over the summer.
Every day, news was reaching us that we had signed the league’s top scorer from the previous season, or a former captain of an EFL team, or a midfielder who had won the Essex Senior League twice in the last three seasons. This sense of optimism was short lived.
Fast-forward to six games left of the season and the club is unrecognisable from the summer overhaul. Spinks stepped down in January, citing ‘personal reasons’, and assistant manager John Hughes was thrown into the deep-end, forced to take his first ever managerial role mid-season.
Despite some memorable results including a 4-2 away triumph against Frenford in his first game in charge and a 2-1 home victory over Barking, The Bloods’ inconsistency on the pitch has proved that a playoff position now looks increasingly unlikely as we are in sixth place, five points off the playoffs having played a game more than the team in fifth, Great Wakering Rovers.
Of the squad that took to the field on Saturday, only three were brought in by Spinks in the summer: Lee Hursit, Sam Deering and Michael Turner, who was named club captain after Eman Okunja’s season-ending injury in January. Only one player, Conor Hoskins, who wasn’t in the squad on Saturday, is a local lad – the rest travel to matches from locations ranging from London to Canvey Island. I believe that every club should give youth a chance, and to have no players in a matchday squad who live within a 45-minute drive of their own home ground emphasises the lack of connection between the club and the community.
The nature of the comings and goings in and out of Catons Lane throughout the season seems to have finally caught up with Hughes’ men. A somewhat unbalanced squad characterised by the fact that Walden were playing with just one recognised centre-back in Turner at Takeley, with the substitutes’ bench made up of three wingers, a defensive midfielder and a striker. What would’ve happened if a defender had picked up an injury?
The larger than usual crowd prompted a discussion among our fans on the terraces that we haven’t hosted a fixture on Non-League Day for two years, meaning that every year we have missed out on hosting a game that has guaranteed to provide a larger attendance, and in turn, more money for the club.
Saturday saw an atmosphere unlike any seen at a Bloods match this season, prompting the pre-match questions of how the squad would cope with so many fans against them. Experienced players such as Billy Knott and Deering are used to playing in front of thousands from their time in the EFL, and, to their credit, the younger players mostly took to the occasion well.
As tackles began to fly in from both sides, resulting in a total of four bookings in the match, it became clear as time went on in the match that both sides had a simple priority of ‘not losing’, as opposed to trying to win, given the large crowd and the nature of the situation.
Barring around 40 travelling supporters who had made the 30 minute drive, the crowd were pushing Takeley on to try and get that all-important goal, including Stuart Pearce, who was pictured before the match with a Takeley scarf draped around his neck.
And once Wescott got onto the end of a delightful right-wing cross from Glenn O’Hanlon, poking the ball past George Coton and into the bottom corner, there was only going to be one winner.
With the crowd on the side and the wind in their sails, it was Miles’ goal, after he showed composure in the box to take a touch before finishing past Coton, that really put the seal on a perfect day for the hosts, and an utterly miserable one for us visitors.
As the Takeley players celebrated with their fans, high-fiving Stuart Pearce as they made their was down the tunnel, most senior Walden players stayed behind to clap the large travelling contingent behind the goal, but their efforts to thank us seemed insignificant given the nature of the loss.
All in all, it was a day to forget for our football club. Not only were we put to the sword by two players who wore the red and black with distinction, but the carnival atmosphere at Station Road translated into nothing but pain for the travelling Bloods Army.
I sincerely hope we host a Non-League Day fixture next season for once. It’s the least we deserve for everything we’ve been through this season.
