Bill Robinson reports from Ship Lane….
Thurrock 1 Chesham United 3
A below par performance, from what looks likely to be the Thurrock squad for this coming season allowed the buoyant visitors to take advantage of some bad defensive errors and punished them with goals.
Thurrock started well but failed to capitalise on their early possession, and we had to wait until the twenty second minute before the chances started to come.
First was a shot from Reiss Gilbey, collecting the ball some twenty five yards from goal he drove forward and unleashed his shot that was just inches wide.
Just minutes later Thurrock were awarded a free kick wide on the right flank, Lee Flynn passed the ball inside for Matt Bodkin to strike a shot that again just missed the target.
On 27 minutes the best chance of the game fell to Chesham’s Mark Lambert who followed through with his strikers into the box and when the cross came over he just failed to put his full force behind the ball and Deniz Mehmet made a fine save.
Just sixty seconds later again Chesham should have taken the lead, fro a corner on the left Steve Obeng ran onto the cross and with a firm header saw the ball just clear the crossbar.
Thurrock’s best chance followed a splendid move by Riess Gilbey who found David Bryant on the wide left, closely shadowed by his marker he managed to throw him off and turn to strike but just failed to deliver the power required and keeper Bobby Smith made a comfortable save.
Finally a break trough was made and it was for the visitors, a defensive error allowed the ball to be sent through to Steve Wales who ran on towards the advancing keeper who was unable to keep the ball out of the net.
HT 0-1
A number of substitutions were made by both managers for the start of the second half and the game lost its momentum and became a scrappy affair, but it was the visitors that looked more dangerous and when Steve Wales added to his and his teams tally in the 55th minute it didn’t get any better for Thurrock.
A nice move by Matt Bodkin and David Bryant in the 75th minute resulted in David Bryant scoring his first of the season to reduce the deficit but just three minutes later in the 78th minute Chesham regained their two goal advantage when Liam Farrell side footed home number three for the visitors.
Thurrock now go to Billericay on Tuesday evening looking to put in a better performance with the league season less than three weeks away.
Thurrock: Mehmet, Andrews, Flynn, Kayode, Clark, Gilbey, Bodkin, Vernazza, Bryant, Roache, Bakake.
Subs: Dadson, Akurang, Beaney, O’Toole, Omand
