Two David Johnson goals in the first half gave Town another win in a game which petered out towards the end of the second half. Johnny Bosman scored Alkmaar's second half reply.

Town lined up in an unfamiliar 4-4-2 formation with Croft and Wilnis the full-backs and Clapham on the left of midfield. Town should really have had the whole game well and truly sewn up by half-time, they dominated most of the first half and passed the ball around neatly and created several openings. Unfortunately most of these chances went begging including three very good opportunities to Marcus Stewart.

The two Johnson goals both came from neat passing manoeuvres down the left. The first saw Johnson cut in and, just as he was about to shoot, have the ball pulled away from his feet by the Alkmaar keeper. Unfortunately for the keeper he did this with such melodrama that he dropped the ball allowing a rather surprised Johnson to slide the ball home. The Town striker giggled all the way back to the halfway line.

Johnson's second saw Jim Magilton brilliantly beat a defender with a feint before the keeper saved his close range effort on goal. Johnson followed up to net his second of the game.

Town were less impressive in the second half and shortly after substituting James Scowcroft and Jermaine Wright for Nabil Abidallah and Martijn Resuer the Dutch side pulled one back. They broke down the left and a cross was met by Johny Bosman (not Jean-Marc Bosman responsible for transfer shenanigans) hammered past Wright.

The match was largely uneventful in the late stages, a decent cross from Abidallah to Clapham was the major footballing highlight, however a few tackles flew in in the last couple of minutes.

Alkmaar's Paul Matthijs put in one or two quite nasty challenges on Abidallah and was confroted first by Jim Magilton, then David Johnson and then the referee.

At the other end Titus Bramble showed he still has that tendency to make the odd reckless challenge when he sent an Alkmaar player (Barry Opdam?) flying. The Alkmaar player appeared to be making a bit of a meal of it as he rolled over time after time, but after extensive treatment on the pitch and the bringing out of a stretcher it was clear that he was by no means putting it on.

With seconds remaining Gary Croft was replaced by Wayne Brown before the referee blew his whistle.

A good workout for Town, particularly in the first half. Impressive were Johnson, Magilton, Stewart (finishing apart), Bramble, Scales and pretty much everyone else.

Amongs those attending the game were Kieron Dyer ("I've just come to see Titus play"), Simon Milton, Mark Venus and former Celtic player Roy Aitken, presumably on a scouting mission for someone (any ideas?).

The biggest disappointment for Town would have been the attendence which was 5,000.

Mark Venus will miss the beginning of the season with the back injury he sustained at Orient on Wednesday. He will have a scan in the week on the injury which is a one he has suffered before.

Photo: Action Images

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