by Tom Hooks

Edgware Town 0

Witham Town 2

Following their brilliant 3-0 home win over leaders Canvey Island in midweek, Edgware clearly assumed they only had to step on to the pitch on Saturday to claim a further three points against third-from-bottom Witham, who had managed only three victories out of 22 matches, and were without a win in their last 10!

This attitude was to prove costly and, despite missing defensive stalwarts Shay Finnerty and Joe Sheridan, there was frankly no excuse for an inept, lacklustre performance which saw the visitors deservedly achieve only their second league away success of the campaign.

The writing was on the wall from the kick-off when, not for the only time in the game, Steve Hurd came to the rescue with a superb tackle to deny Tei, on the point of shooting.

The respite was shortlived as Tei put the visitors ahead after only six minutes, when he was allowed to run onto a through ball and, with only keeper James Goodman to beat, coolly slid home.

Despite losing full-back Moore through injury after 15 minutes, Witham always looked the more likely to score, without really troubling Goodman.

Edgware were virtually unrecognisable from the side that performed so well to defeat the leaders, and could not create a single noteworthy chance in the entire first half.

Manager Jim McGleish undoubtedly had a few choice words for his team at the interval, but there was only marginal improvement in the second half.

It was fully 60 minutes before Kriehn in the Witham goal, was seriously threatened, but John Coleman blasted over the bar from 12 yards with the Wares' first real chance of the match.

Peter Sutton replaced Alan Murray with 25 minutes left, and the substitution nearly paid off as he sent Steve Fraser away, only to see a fine shot superbly saved by the diving Kriehn.

Christian Glynn replaced the disappointing Fabio Valenti, adding some much-needed urgency to the proceedings and, with the last throw of the dice, Graham Ash came on for Paul McCluskey.

However, the Wares continued to struggle and had clearly run out of ideas when Tei put the result beyond doubt in the closing minutes.

In a breakaway he sprinted on to a through ball to score his second goal.

EDGWARE TOWN: Goodman, Smart, Whytock, Hurd, Roche, McCluskey (Ash), Lyons, Murray (Sutton), Fraser, Coleman, Valenti (Glynn).

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.