Football Focus Issue 83 | Page 38

Brentwood Town FOLLOW US ONLINE TWITTER.COM/FOOTYFOCUSMAG Brentwood Town FOOTBALL CLUB Brentwood Town are now in their twelfth season in the Isthmian League after winning promotion from the Essex Senior League in 2007. All but one of those seasons has been in the North Division, with just one season in the Premier in 2015/16, and after relegation in 2016 the last three seasons have seen the Blues mostly in the wrong half of the Bostik North table. Manager Craig Shipman has been at the helm for two years and has twice successfully guided the team to safety. This season he has a new assistant in Miki Hood and Shipman says, “Brentwood is a good environment in which to coach and manage. I am really enjoying working with the squad and the group are learning all the time.” A mostly young squad now looks stronger than in the previous two campaigns and there were some good cup runs in the first half of the season. Shipman says, “We began the season keeping teams out of our goal and getting wins. It’s not massively changed but there’s a few games where the odd goal has cost us, so we need to be tighter defensively.” “We have had a tough period over Christmas and New Year with one win in four and some disappointing results, although our results up to Christmas were excellent with a 6-0 win away Image courtesy of Thomas Bradford 38 Issue 83 to Mildenhall, knocking Maldon and Heybridge out of the Essex Senior Cup, and beating top-of-the-league Bowers & Pitsea 3-0.” The first goal against previously unbeaten Bowers came from a long kick by goalkeeper James Pellin who was making his league debut for Blues. Remarkably, the club’s other keeper, Rob Budd, also scored in similar fashion at Mildenhall just four weeks later. Shipman’s realistic target for the