Takeley boss Duncan Easley has spoken of his surprise that his side are scheduled to play 10 home games in a row.

Easley’s Essex Senior League team have already completed five on the spin at Station Road and have another five lined up over the festive period and into the New Year.

Easley told the Dunmow Broadcast: “We’re now in the middle of 10 home games; it’s ridiculous.

“The game on Tuesday was close to getting called off, the pitch will take a battering.

“There’s so many games on it and it needs a rest.

“It’s just the way it is, there were a couple of cup matches, and a couple of rescheduled games in the list.

“Our next away trip is not until January 23 and we were last away on November 28, so we’ve got two months’ worth of home fixtures.”

Tuesday night saw Takeley go down 3-2 in the Premier Division to league strugglers Waltham Forest.

Takeley had taken a second minute lead through a Chris Gibbs header, only for Forest to lead 2-1 at the break with efforts from Alan Callaghan and Charlie Gregory.

With 10 minutes to play Forest struck a third through Roy Jones before Oliver Fortune tapped in to make the final score 3-2.

On Saturday James Mays, Andrew Reed and Alex Martin were on target for Takeley in a fine 3-0 win over Ilford.

Easley added: “We played well on Saturday, but didn’t have the same intensity on Tuesday.

“I don’t know whether scoring early lulled us into a false sense of security, we lacked intensity and it was a shame not to back up Saturday’s win with another.”

Takeley, 17th in the table, return to action at home on Saturday as they face bottom side Enfield 1893.