Longstanding supporters and players will remember our annual encounters with Witham Town from yesteryear. The “SOBS” would always create a decent atmosphere from behind the goal while the players (sometimes literally!) would battle it out on the pitch. The cutting below prior to the opening of the 1998/99 campaign appeared in the “Evening Gazette” and shows just how that rivalry spread into the press and, to be honest, we fans loved it. Unfortunately things did not work out for the Dragons that season as we finished one point (51 to 50) and two places behind the Spa Road outfit.
In the head-to-head League games it finished 1-1 at Broad Lane (we only managed 4 home League victories that season although did record a decent return of 10 away wins) with Alan “Daisy” Day netting our goal while we lost the reverse fixture 1-3, Julian Hazel scoring our consolation. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though as we managed to defeat them 3-1 at home in the 2nd Round of the Vandanel Trophy thanks to another goal from “Jules” added to one by Lee Neale and an unfortunate (and much celebrated by us) own goal from a visiting defender.
To balance things up here’s a couple of pictures taken from the “Green ‘Un” with Justin Booty scoring and then celebrating during the Dragons’ 3-0 Boxing Day victory on 26/12/96.
Finally on to a classic meeting from towards the tail end of the 2007/08 campaign. Although relegated that season to the Eastern Counties League this was perhaps one of our most celebrated victories on the day, the reason being that some of the Witham players starting taunting the “SOBS” as they thought they had the game won (so did we !). If I remember correctly Adam Hampson set up Lee Underwood’s equalizer before Danny Hart scored the unlikely late winner. “Shell shocked” and “Crest Fallen” didn’t begin to describe their players at the final whistle. Don’t you just love it when that happens !!.
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