BRENTWOOD Town travelled to Cricklefields in Ilford to meet Waltham Forest in this away Ryman North Division game on a bitterly cold, windy afternoon.
Perhaps the weather, combined with Premier League football on Sky TV, deterred many would be supporters as a gate of only 40 bothered attending the game.
However, by half time those that did attend probably wished they had not as this was no football feast .
Perhaps the pitch was a little heavy – something the majority of clubs at this level will need to get used to in the coming weeks – but the teams made hard work of the situation and a 0-0 scoreline just about summed up the first half and a bore draw looked to be on the cards.
Martyn Stokes, Alex Read and Steve Butterworth had first-half chances as Brentwood probably edged the first half but neither 'keeper was particularly busy.
In the second period, for a time, the tempo picked up a little. Shortly after the restart, a free kick to Brentwood from the edge of the box was met perfectly by Ryan Doyle but his headed attempt was directed straight into the safe arms of Forest's keeper Cain Davies.
Just after the half-hour mark, the home side's Manu Dagher incredibly dribbled through a packed Brentwood defence and unleashed an effort Town 'keeper Reece Ottley did well to parry away for a corner. The well-taken corner looked dangerous until the effort was blasted wide of the target.
The home side were beginning to take the initiative, sensing Brentwood were struggling to find the form that had taken them on a good run of results of late.
However, in the 81st minute, a break down the right hand flank resulted in new signing Ross Wall hooking a dangerous looking ball into the Forest penalty area but, again, the headed effort went straight to the home keeper.
Two minutes later, the predictable happened. Brentwood's defence failed to clear a Forest attack and Arian Retkoceri hit hard and straight from outside the box into the bottom right hand corner of the net to give the home side the advantage.
This was a lacklustre display by two teams who really did not look up for the game on the afternoon and was summed up by the relative inactivity of the two keepers.
Town manager Steve Witherspoon will be scratching his head and wondering how a team that performed a major comeback three days earlier against Romford, with two goals in time added on, failed to inspire a fight-back in this game.
