Brentwood were without influential midfielders Dave Allen, who was a flu victim, and Grant Delea who suffered a recurrence of his shoulder injury during the week so they reshuffled their line-up, with Doug Allsop making his first appearance of the season in the first team, as a partner for Dave Stittle up front.

On a wet pitch, Brentwood made a sluggish start, whereas the home side settled quickly and looked much more likely to score early on with Kevin Harvey and Andre Turner causing the Blues defence problems.

The Hammers had their best chance after 21 minutes when Steve Grant was clear inside the penalty area but Brentwood goalkeeper Dave Pether saved at his feet when the forward might have done better to square the ball across the six yard box.

Eight minutes later Brentwood scored a quality goal which turned the game in their favour.

Centre back James Read won the ball in his own half and threaded a pass through to leading scorer Stittle, whose pace took him away from the defence and he expertly finished, shooting past the advancing home goalkeeper Derek Burnett, for his 12th goal of the season.

After this Brentwood played much better and controlled much of the game until half time.

Much of the second half belonged to Brentwood and they increased their lead with another fine goal after 69 minutes.

Allsop's free kick was met at the far post by Darren Hitchcock who headed powerfully into the corner of the net.

East Ham went close in the last ten minutes and Kevin Garneys had to clear the ball spectacularly off the line after Pether had partially smothered a shot from Grant.

Pether then saved John Maskell's powerful free kick at the second attempt to keep his goal intact and Brentwood consolidated second place in the league.

Brentwood: D Pether, L Felstead, E Martin, J Read, K Garneys, J Fairweather, D Hitchcock, C Mead, D Allsop, D Stittle, P Brewington. Substitutes: M Simpkins, C Nugent and S Stokes.

Most of the club's other fixtures were postponed at the weekend but Brentwood Veterans lost 2-0 at South Woodham in the Mid Essex Veterans League, with an own goal and a penalty sealing their fate.

The first team do not have a fixture this Saturday and their next game is on Monday, December 27 when they host Eton Manor at the Brentwood Centre (kick off at 12 noon).

Other fixtures for this Saturday are: Essex & Herts Border Combination: Hornchurch Reserves v Brentwood Reserves (kick off 3pm). Dave Strachan Cup: Braintree & Bocking United v Brentwood III (kick off 1.30pm).

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.