Ryman Premier
Brentwood 1 v 3 East Thurrock United
GOALS in the closing moments of each half helped East Thurrock to three Ryman Premier points at the Arena on Tuesday evening.
The visitors took to the field without iconic striker Sam Higgins who was sidelined by injury but they made a good start and came close to opening the scoring on ten minutes when David Bryant lashed the ball into the side netting.
Martyn Guest then pulled off a close range save to deny Kris Newby after great work down the flank by Bryant.
So it was against the run of play when a mix-up on the edge of the Rocks box allowed Mitch Hahn to turn and lob the ball into an empty net for the game’s opener.
The visitors huffed and puffed their way through the rest of the half, enjoying the lion’s share of possession but creating little until until a minute before the break whe they won a free-kick which Lewis Smith dummied for Newby to shoot. The ball ricochetted into the path of Smith who slotted it home from an acute angle.
It seemed the sides would go in all square but Brentwood had other ideas and in added time Robbie Rees rose to head against the East Thurrock bar.
Rocks cleared the ball and Harry Honesty raced down the left flank and delivered a superb cross into the path of Bryant who stooped and headed home.
The second half again saw Rocks in the ascendency but they struggled to convert possession into real chances against Brentwood’shard-working defence until the last minute when Smith played in Tom Wraight who put a couple of earlier missed chances out of his mind and slid the ball past Guest to secure the win.
