Kelvedon Hatch welcomed Epping, the unbeaten league leaders, to School Road on a bright and clear autumnal Saturday afternoon with the pitch again looking in immaculate condition, thanks Freddie.

The game started at a brisk pace with Hatch slightly edging the possession with some good early passing moves. It was Peter Williams and Chris Wolff up front for Hatch who were the busier of the forwards with the Epping defence struggling to close them down. On 12 mins Williams picked up a through ball from Darren Brown he cut inside past his defender, hitting a well struck cross to the near post which was well defended. On 16 mins Darren Hickson cut in from the right and hit a left shot on target but it was easily saved by their goal keeper. On 20 mins Epping started to get into the game and looked dangerous going forward on the break. On 22 mins Epping had a breakaway down the middle and outnumbered the Hatch defence, but were stopped in their tracks by a well timed tackle from Dave Hopwood in midfield. The remainder of the half past without any goalmouth incident. Epping were now establishing themselves in the game but could not break down the Hatch defence. Hatch worked the ball into some good areas around the Epping penalty box but were unable to either get the shot in or get on the end of some good crosses from both Dean Walker and Hickson. The score remained 0-0 at the half time whistle.

The second half started the same as the first with defences remaining on top. Then on 62 mins Wolff showed good footwork in the Epping box only to be brought down by a defender, penalty to the Hatch. Darren Brown stepped up to take the penalty, hitting his shot straight at the goalkeeper giving him an easy save, the rebound was well struck by Dean Walker but again, straight at the goalkeeper. James McCayna replaced the injured Evan Jelliss on 67 mins and on 70 mins Martin King replaced Dave Hopwood. The game was starting to get stretched as players became tired. On 73 mins the Hatch goalkeeper, Mark Allan came out to gather the ball above the defenders head only to trip the forward resulting in a penalty. The Epping forward struck his penalty slightly to the right but the Hatch keeper was up to the challenge and made an easy save. On 75 mins Charlie Ryan replaced a tired Williams who had worked tirelessly up front. On 83 mins a cross out to the left fell to an unmarked Ryan, just outside their penalty box, who hit a perfectly placed shot curling it into the far top right hand corner giving their keeper no chance, 1-0. Epping rallied themselves and started to push forward in search of a winner. On 87 mins a cross found an unmarked Epping forward on the edge of the Hatch 6 yard box but an alert McCayna produced the tackle of the game to deny him the shooting opportunity. From this point on Hatch managed to get their foot on the ball and played out the last few minutes to end the game worthy 1-0 winners.

The Hatch supporters had seen their team gain a deserved and very important 3 points as they currently have no fixture for the next 2 weeks.

Jamie