Ryman Div One North
AFC Sudbury 2 v 6 Thurrock
THURROCK travelled into Suffolk for today’s Ryman One North fixture and had the worst of starts. AFC Sudbury kicked off and played the ball down the left wing for a very innocuous cross which slipped from Andy Walker’s hands to a Sudbury forward who then passed to unmarked Kris Newby to powerfully strike home with just 26 seconds on the clock.
The deficit lasted about five minutes before Charlie Stimson brought down the ball and slid it out to Brad Warner, Warner found Rob Clark who hit a powerful shot cum cross that was edging wide but into the path of Ross Wall who made no mistake.
A period of end-to-end uncompromising, slightly niggly football, ensued with both sides making good approaches but not making the final ball count. Then Mark Onyemah played a delicate lob over the midfield to Simon King on the edge of the Sudbury box, King chested the ball to Charlie Stimson who glanced up, saw the keeper off his line and surpassed Onyemah’s lob with his own sublime 20 yard effort which the keeper could only watch into the net.
Sudbury were still asking questions though and headed a corner onto the post and had a shot straight at Walker before the half time whistle.
Thurrock started the second half with their own chance in the first minute when Ross Wall’s shot was blocked by the keepers legs. Twelve minutes later though Thurrock had another two goals on the score board. First, Brad Warner was the recipient of an inch perfect threaded pass from Charlie Stimson, he took a small touch to steady himself before steering the ball under the keeper. Next up, Ross Wall received the ball on the edge of the box, turned and held the ball as players made runs off of him creating an open path to goal which he blasted the ball through.
Sudbury clawed another goal back with a simple cross from the right wing onto the head of Correy Davidson who confidently headed home however the three goal gap was restored within a minute when Charlie Stimson fed the ball to Rob Clark who pulled three defenders out to him before pushing the ball across the area into the path of Ross Wall for his hat-trick – except Brad Warner got there first!
The scoring was wrapped up at 70 minutes with a one-two between Mark Onyemah and Lewwis Spence with Onyemah clipping the ball in from an extremely tight angle.
There was still time for both teams to hit the woodwork before the Thurrock fans embarked on a victory conga.
Team: Andy Walker, Lewis Clark, Mark Onyemah, Rob Gilman, Simon King, Sam Holloway, Rob Clark (James Goode, 75), Lewwis Spence, Brad Warner (Jack Paxman, 75), Ross Wall, Charlie Stimson
Unused: Greig Stewart, Daniel Okah, Connor Martin
Attendance: 190
