Ryman Div One North
Soham Town Rangers 1 v 1 Tilbury
By Antony Mercer
Photos courtesy of Ell
iot Mercer
Tilbury snatched an equaliser deep into injury time to deny Soham Town Rangers their first home win of the season at the Lane.
After Tilbury’s heavy defeat at Chertsey Town last week, Manager Paul Vaughan made five changes with Marrable, Crooks, Matthews, Llewellyn and Henty replacing Anderson, King, Wraight, Small and James Smith.
Soham who won their first game of the season last week at Redbridge came into the game with confidence.
The half was a fairly even, end to end affair, although it was the Dockers who created the first chance after three minutes when Llewellyn swivelled shot was well saved by Bircham.
Soham’s Robinson tried his luck on 15 but his shot was turned over the bar by Marrable. Tilbury had a good shout for a penalty on 17 when Emiel Aiken was tripped in the area by Bromwich, but the referee waived away any protests. Shortly after Martin Llewellyn climbed in the box only to see his header go wide. On 35 the excellent Jack Paxman’s effort was well turned over by Marrable before Mason then curled a shot from the edge of the area against the roof of the bar.
The second half started with Danny Francis having a shot cleared off the line from a Aaron Matthews cross.
On 55 Soham took the lead when Mason held off Waters to flick a pass on to Michael Simpson to score from 7 yards. The hosts continued to dominate and with 2 minutes remaining should have confirmed the 3 points when McCable played in Paxman, but his low shot was again turned round the post by James Marrable. With the game coming to a close and the officials confirming 3 additional minutes, James Marrable in the Tilbury goal went up for the corner only for it to be cleared.
With Soham clearing their lines and the game going in to its fifth minute of injury time, the ball fell to Aaron Matthews 25 yards from goal with every player in the Soham’s half of the pitch, saw him volley through a crowded Soham penalty area and past the unsighted Bircham. Following the goal, the referee blew his whistle immediately to the disappointment of Soham.
After the game assistant Manager Dave Ross said “Pleased we played to the whistle, I always thought we would score. Also pleased to see captain Gary Henty and Bradley Barnes back from injury and bounce back from 2 cup defeats in recent weeks”.
Tilbury are next back in action on Tuesday for a friendly against Blue Square South side Billericay Town 7.30pm, before welcoming next Saturday AFC Sudbury.
TEAM: Marrable, D Smith, Waters (Barnes 75), Crooks, Nightingill, Henty, Llewellyn (J Smith 79), Carlile (Small 72), Aiken, Francis, Matthews
Subs not used: Mead and Edwards
