Thurrock 1st XI 2 – 0 Southend 1st XI
By Steven Abbott
What a game! What a beauty! Absolutely no pressure on the home side and it showed.
A good early start, a good warm up and a great game. The game started well for Thurrock playing it nicely down the wings and some lovely one touch hockey flowed.
A few chances for both sides lead to some hairy moments but Thurrock drew first blood. A short corner was awarded and it finally paid off! after weeks of messing up short corner after short corner…one finally went in! Kyle Taylor dragged out firmly to his brother Jak Taylor who pushed it slightly into the D where Tommy Ing stepped up and fired home through the legs of the Southend Keeper. 1-0 to Thurrock.
The rest of the first half, Thurrock had to soak up some pressure and they did it well. Notably Andy Gaut in goal making some wonderful saves from short corners and some quality defending from all the Thurrock players.
Half time and the talk was all positive. Keep playing as we are with no pressure.
The second half was very much more stretched. More space all over the pitch which lead to some clear cut chances. Southend had a few which maybe on another day they may have put away…but not this day! Christian Jenkins put a couple of lovely aerial balls through to both Jak Taylor and Liam Birch but both couldn’t convert after a couple of great saves from the away keeper.
The game started to get frustrating from both sides as Thurrock were desperately holding onto their 1-0 lead and Southend were doing anything to score. Another factor may have been the poor umpiring but there was no bias, just blindness. This lead to the Southend forward being sin binned for swearing at the umpire.
One final chance for Thurrock as the ball came down the left well, a cross from Jeff West found itself at Kyle Taylor’s foot. He then jabbed it towards Christian Jenkins who brilliantly slotted it home. Thurrock had doubled their lead and won the 3 points.
Some points to note about the game were the captain Steven Abbott back from his ban, although he unfortunately had to go off with another torn calf. Luke Danbrook winning Man of the match for some brilliant defending, and Donkey going to the keeper Andy Gaut for clearing the ball inches away from the Southend forwards stick as we were holding onto our 1-0 lead. Although this was a harsh call but honestly no one did anything stupid enough to win the coveted Donkey prize this week so unfortunately Andy swooped it!
Onto next week where Thurrock 1st XI head to a quality Univerity of Essex side in Colchester. Come on you Tees
