A spirited first 45 minutes saw Thurrock on top and with greater possession but failing to breaching the Gill’s defence, the closest they came was inside the first five minutes when Paul O’Lima shot from about 25 yards out and the ball hit the bar and over.
Thurrock continued to play good football throughout the first half and both David Bryant and Matt Bodkin looked dangerous but failed to get a shots away on target when chances were created.
Gillingham were having to rely on break aways to test the Thurrock defence, in which Kenny Clarke again looked impressive, on one such excursion into the home sides penalty area Cherno Samba fired off a looping shot but keeper Joe Woolley had it covered.
H.T. 0-0
From the restart Thurrock were quick to test the Gills defence, immediately applying the pressure looking to get that elusive equaliser.
But they found that Gillingham themselves had tightened up their defence and gave Thurrock little or no space to build attacks from.
Gillingham were getting into their stride now and were beginning to take control of the game and started to dictate the play.
On 52 minutes they broke the deadlock with goal headed in from Emanuel Udoji, it came from a short corner taken quickly that may have caught the Thurrock defence off guard, as the ball came over Udoji was unmarked as he directed his header wide of Joe Woolley and into the net.
Few and far between chances for either side as they battled out a confined midfield area.
Riess Gilbey came as a substitute for Thurrock in the 60th minute and was a breath of fresh air as his started to take charge of the Thurrock midfield.
He was both quick footed and quick to react to any threat from Gillingham, but unfortunately could not muster any trickery to enable Thurrock to find an equaliser.
Thurrock: Woolley, Andrews, Doyle, Swaine, Clark, Paine, Bodkin, Lalite, Bryant, O’Lima Orilonishe SUBS: Morgan, Thompson, Gilbey, Saunders.
