Potters Bar Town 0, East Thurrock United 2
THIS was far from East Thurrock’s best performance of the season but at this stage of the campaign it’s all about results and the three points gleaned edged Rocks four points clear of title rivals Needham Market reports the Thurrock Enquirer.
Interestingly the Suffolk side, who weren’t in action today, are the next visitors to a rather arid Parkland Stadium on Tuesday and they too will be more concerned with getting the points rather than entertaining.
Having said that, no-one could realistically argue that East Thurrock didn’t deserve the points. They were the dominant side all afternoon and even though their second goal owed much to a poor decision by ref Adrian Oldershaw, they always appeared to be in control of their destiny.
They set the tempo as early as the second minute when man of the match Max Cornhill forced a fine save from new Bar keeper Marlon Beresford, who followed it up instantaneously with one from Hakeem Araba, though the Rocks striker did pounce from an offside position and it wouldn’t have counted.
Araba then had another great chance as he sprang the home side’s back line, but he spurned the chance to bury it, putting it nearer the steeple of the church behind the goal than the back of the net.
Bar’s first chance came soon after when Steve Sheehan gave the ball away cheaply, allowing Luke Croll a run on goal but he was eventually crowed out.
It was about the only mistake of the afternoon from the young Rocks centreback who turned in a fine performance, showing his attacking prowess with a header soon after that came back off the Scholars’ crossbar.
The opening goal finally arrived on 26 minutes when Araba teased a foul out of the home defence with a quick turn on the edge of the box and Cornhill slammed home the subsequent free-kick.
Rocks should perhaps have made more of lots of possession but they didn’t get a second goal until the 41st minute when Kye Ruel was adjudged to have been tripped in the box. Kris Newby drilled home the spot-kick.
Potters Bar came out with new found enthusiasm at the start of the second half and after ten minutes came close the getting a goal back when Tom Pett’s effort came down off the underside of the crossbar and away to safety, much to the relief of Rocks.
The visitors might have extended their lead soon after when keeper Beresford tripped as he tried to clear the ball, leaving Araba a gilt-edged chance to walk the ball into an unguarded net but the striker tried to chip the stranded keeper and gave him the unexpected opportunity to save.
Rocks spurned further chances to extend their lead and ended up spending a lot of the last 15 minutes defending the points on the back-foot.
Pett came closest to grabbing a goal back with a deflected shot that came back off the upright, while Richard Wray did well to parry away a long range cross-come-shot from Jose Espinoza with his defence static.
However, in the end the visitors carried the day. They have played better and lost, so the level of performance will be no big worry to their management who will recognise the need for steely determination at the sharp end of the season, which continues on Monday with a tricky trip to much improved Ilford.
