Redbridge 3 v 4 Thurrock
THIS week turned from cold to freezing and Thurrock were to travel to Redbridge & Ilford to face their 1st XI who were a bit up and down and quite unpredictable whether they were going to turn out with some decent players or allow Thurrock to walk all over them. It happened to be the former which made for quite a feisty and interesting game.
The game started with Thurrock on the back foot and they found themselves soaking up some early pressure from the Redbridge side. A few chances and a decision from the umpire lead to a Redbridge & Ilford penalty flick. However, the keeper, Danny Hik, was on his toes to pull of a great save to his right to stop the flick and keep Thurrock from going down to an early goal.
Thurrock responded early to the flick and started to play some good hockey and create some chances. Some might say lucky, some may even say bold, but a lovely bit of hockey lead to Andre Rudder having a shot from the right hand side of the D, which deflected off both the keeper and the defender but found itself hitting the backboard. 1-0 to Thurrock.
No less than a minute or two later, a nice bit of play lead to another chance for Andre Rudder who skilfully fended off the last defender and smacked the ball past the keepers toe to make it 2-0 Thurrock.
Then it sort of fell apart for the Thurrock team who let the umpiring get to them and they retorted to last weeks second half performance of shouting at the umpires and letting it get to their heads. Before long some intricate play down the right from the home team lead to an easy finish from the player a couple of yards out from goal.
Redbridge kept the pressure on and this lead to a short corner for the home team of which the Thurrock post men were no where to be found when the centre back stepped up to slot the ball into the bottom left of the goal. 2-2 and it was all square.
However, Thurrock then responded in the right way with a lovely bit of play from Christian Jenkins who cheekily walked it round a floundering keeper to slot the ball to the back post where Steve Abbott was there to slot the ball home. 3-2 to Thurrock nearing the half time whistle. but the drama wasn’t over. An altercation between a Redbridge player and Jak Taylor lead to some heated words but all the Redbridge player could do was point out to the umpire that he didn’t like swear words.
The second half started with Christian Jenkins, who clearly didn’t pay attention at the start of the game, trying to take the 2nd half pushback. It was a Redbridge start!
Throughout the second half it was a bit niggerly and the tackles were not very pretty. Some pressure from the home side lead to some quick passing across the top of the D which saw Luke (bulldozer) Danbrook hack the forward inside the D and give away a short corner.
The game looked like it would finish with the points shared but Dec Millane wasn’t having any of it. A nice bit of play from Steve Abbott put Dec in one-on-one with the keeper, he turned with the grace of an ugly ballerina away from the keeper and slotted it into the side netting. 4-3 to Thurrock.
Thurrock then just had to see out the game of which they did well and took 3 important points away from home. still unbeaten going into a very tough game next week which sees a top of the table clash against East London! Come on you Tees.
Man of the match went to Tommy Ing for another outstanding performance at the back and Donky went to Luke Danbrook for a hidious challenge which lead to the 3rd home goal, and also he was the ghost post man!
