You can dominate a game and come away with the wrong result. You would expect Aveley to be tired after great performances at Dartford and Wealdstone and here they were again at neighbours Billericay Town in their spat of nine games in nineteen days.
But the tiredness didn’t show and as early as the 4th minute Junior Dadson beat his man and narrowly missed Nicholls post. Stanley Sherwin did the same two minutes later and it began to look like a good night for Rod. But then after good work on the left wing by Dave Wareham, his cross glanced Aveley’s Alailey and sent keeper Ollie Morris Saunders the wrong way.
And that’s how it remained for the next hour with Aveley dominating and being subject to some strange refereeing decisions . Three penalty claims denied ,some very suspect offside decisions and Sam Holloway being booked when in fact the offender was Tony Russell. Rod |Stringer was fortunate to escape another period in the stands as he rather loudly questioned some of these decisions.
The Dagenham and Redbridge management team were among the 314 watching the game and admired Dagenham namesake Danny Green’s lovely run which ended in a well deserved second goal for Billericay on 75 minutes . Back came Aveley and Martin Tuohy netted after a Danny Gabriel cross although we think his face took a bad knock in the process.
An awful pitch which resembled a dustbowl can’t have been easy for either team and meant the game was scrappy in parts but Aveley shouldn’t feel to downhearted. Two more important games by Saturday and then we can sit back and add up the points .
The tally should be impressive.
