Ryman Premier
East Thurrock United 1 v 4 Margate
EAST THURROCK sank further into the relegation zone with a heavy 4-1 defeat against mid-table Margate at Rookery Hill.
The first thirty minutes were all East Thurrock as they looked like the team that had dismantled Canvey so easily. The only difference was they could not find the back of the net.
They had the movement and pace but not direction. All the strikers were finding space perhaps best illustrated by Lewis Smith, who, in the 23rd minute, found himself in space in the area but his shot went wide.
To be fair, Margate keeper, Bull pulled off a series of excellent saves.
They paid the price in the 27th minute when Charlie Wall skipped across the edge of the area before banging the ball home.
East Thurrock continued to squander chances as Margate looked very comfortable for the rest of the half.
A mis-placed back-pass in the 44th minute gave David Bryant a great opportunity but he blinked and shot straight at the keeper.
In the 45th minute, Margate made it 2-0 when Mitchell Nelson fired in a free header from a corner.
It got worse and it got worse immediately as Margate went 3-0 up in the 48th minute when Anthony Rivere, having been set up by Matt Bodkin smashed the ball into the back of the net.
East Thurrock were slowly imploding and when they took off Sam Higgins, it may have been an indication that boss John Coventry was cutting his losses.
In the 60th minute, Charlie Allen made it 4-0 from close range.
A few minutes later, East Thurrock got a goal back when Tom Stephen scored from the penalty spot.
Rocks continued to carve out chances but time after time they squandered their chances.
EAST THURROCK UNITED: Hughes D, Sammons R, Stephen T, Peddie S, Sheehan S, Parmenter R, Witherspoon C, Symons R, Higgins S (Paxman J 60), Richmond N, Bryant D.
Subs not used: Lechmere S, Anderson T, Smith L, Willis J.
Do us a favour if you are going to come to Rookery Hill – get your facts right. On Saturday you had Thurrock’s David Knight in our goal!. Now Lewis Smith is missing chances when he isn’t even playing. You say Margate game was the worst performance of the season – how do you know, you don’t go to all the matches and you don’t even know who is playing when you are there. Yes it was a desperately disappointing result against Margate but I don’t see how they could have tried much harder in the first half when there was only one team in it – and that wasn’t the team that ended up in the lead. That is how it goes in football sometimes, you have to ride your luck and at the moment we are not getting any. By the way we also used Sam Lechmere and Tommy Anderson. Maybe the worst performance of the season was your reporting.