Vanarama National League South Saturday 9 October 2021

Fifth placed Hamlet missed a clear opportunity to reinforce their promotion play-off credentials in front of a ground record attendance against the bottom side. Instead, the match played out more like a clash of two mid table teams with room for improvement as new Billericay manager Jody Brown guided them away from the foot of the table with their first league win of the season, while Hamlet dropped to tenth.

It was the hosts who made the brighter start, launching a series of early raids on the visitors’ goal. After just two minutes an inswinging cross from the right by Gio McGregor, that may or may not have been destined to creep inside the far post, was headed out by a defender. In the fourth minute Billericay goalkeeper Bailey Vose was almost embarrassed as a downward header from Danny Mills, meeting Jordan Higgs’ far post cross, slipped through his hands and legs but without enough pace to cross the line before Vose could recover. Just three further minutes had elapsed when Higgs met Darren McQueen’s cross from the left with a header that was touched over the crossbar at full stretch by Vose, and still inside the first ten minutes McQueen went clear inside the box to test Vose with a shot the keeper couldn’t hold before the loose ball was cleared to safety. In the 15th minute Billericay took the lead completely against the run of play when their first serious attack prompted a disastrous slapstick moment involving goalkeeper Charlie Grainger and his right back Jazzi Barnum-Bobb. The defender rather tentatively tried to nudge the ball back to his keeper as it dropped from high, only succeeding in presenting it for Billericay’s Anderson Pinto to rush past and poke it into the net for the opening goal of the game.

If Hamlet had dominated the first fifteen minutes, the next fifteen were very different. The lively Kweku Lucan appeared to be fouled as he jinked into the box, but the referee thought differently. Then Lucan again sought to punish uncertainty in the Hamlet defence, racing into the box and forcing a good save from Grainger. Hamlet briefly threatened an equalizer when Higgs was released into space on the right side of the box and on another day his firm drive might have whistled past the ankles of Vose to find the net, but the keeper reacted quickly enough to block with an outstretched boot and the onrushing Mills was unable to turn the rebound into the net as the ball spun towards him. Within sixty seconds Billericay had doubled their advantage with a second goal. A precise pass out of midfield sent Lucan clear to the left of goal and he fired confidently past Grainger. Hamlet’s best effort at reducing the arrears before half time came from McGregor’s direct free kick, taken from fully thirty yards out, which Vose parried for a corner.

The second half was predictably played out mainly in the visitors’ half of the field, as they defied Hamlet to break them down whilst committing enough men forward to retain a threat from occasional counterattacks. Tyrone Sterling headed onto the top of the crossbar from a corner, then McGregor’s near post cross from the right was blocked inside the six yard box at the cost of another corner. Hamlet came closer still in the 57th minute as Jordan Green, a half time substitute for Higgs, crossed deep from the right for Mills to head back across goal and Chike Kandi headed against the crossbar. A breakthrough finally came on the hour as a patient passing move across the edge of the crowded penalty box, from right to left, climaxed with McQueen working an opening to shoot low into the net via the outstretched hand of Vose and the inside of the far post.

With fully half an hour remaining, prospects for the Hamlet securing at least one point looked fair. Within two minutes captain Jack Holland, upfield for a corner, sent a flying header just wide of the post. Billericay had a couple of chances at the other end as Henry Lukombo’s downward header was securely held by Grainger, then former Hamlet favourite Michael Chambers was narrowly off target with a far post header at a corner. Hamlet renewed the assault on the visitors’ goal with target man Mills to the fore. Firstly, the big man had a header cleared off the goal line from a corner then a shot deflected for a corner from a right wing cross. McGregor tried his luck from distance with a curling shot that missed the far corner. One last big chance came in the 87th minute as Green’s cross from the right seemed perfectly flighted for the predatory Mills, lurking at the far post, but agonizingly his header flashed wide of the target and that was that.

A few weeks ago, Hamlet boss Gavin Rose told the press he never takes any notice of the league table until ten games have been played but for those of a Hamlet persuasion who do it looked somewhat less jolly at the end of this game than it had at the beginning.

Team (4-2-3-1): Grainger - Barnum-Bobb, Holland(c), Sterling, Blackman - McGregor, Timlin - Higgs, McQueen, Kandi - Mills. Substitutes: Green (for Higgs 46), Moore (for McQueen 90), Taylor, Vint, Dayton (not used).

Attendance: 3,334

Report by Richard Watts