Essex & Suffolk Border League

Premier Division

Wednesday 29th January 2020

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.04

Tiptree Engaine 3 Brantham Athletic Reserves 1, attendance 34

11’ 1-0

23’ 2-0

52’ 3-0

79’ 3-1

@ Thurstable School Sports Centre, 3G Pitch

Maypole Road

Tiptree

CO5 0EW

No Admission or Programme.

Tiptree Engaine play their home matches at two different venues. Back in November I saw them play Alresford Colne Rangers at Burches Meadow, in Colne Engaine, where I witnessed a quite unbelievable match. Tiptree were 5-0 up after nineteen minutes, but conceded a goal four minutes into stoppage time, which resulted in the visitors winning the game 5-6!

Their other home ground is here at Thurstable School, where they normally play on a grass pitch. In an effort to catch up on their fixtures, they played this on the 3G Pitch, which is just a basic cage, having no designated spectator area, although there was no problem with spectators watching at pitch side.

The match was a real relegation battle, as third from bottom in the league table hosted second from bottom. Tiptree Engaine led 2-0 at the break, both goals courtesy of their No.14. It was 3-0 early in the second half, as the hosts began to get well on top. Their No.14 missed two great chances to complete his hat trick, but it wasn’t to be and an own goal saw Brantham pull it back to 3-1 late on.