Isthmian Premier
Kingstonian 0 v 1 East Thurrock United
JUST six and a half weeks since Rocks suffered a somewhat humiliating afternoon at the hands of Kingstonian (a 6-0 FA Trophy defeat) it was now time to visit Surrey for a rearranged league fixture.
On a mild evening the hosts started brightly with the wide men causing particular problems down the flanks and the front two of Buchannan & Ajakaiye looking sharp in attack.
On 10 mins Buchanan headed over a Bilongo cross via a deflection and from the resulting corner Arthur Jananta had to be on his toes to turn a header against the post.
After withstanding the pressure of the first 20 mins Rocks started to find their feet in the game, the front 3 of Ashman, Gordon and Stagg always looked like causing problems on the break and created 2 or 3 half chances that did not really trouble Tolfrey in the K’s goal.
On the stroke of half time Kingstonian were awarded a dubious free kick just outside the box, with Jake Gordon judged to have fouled the opposing playing when it looked like he had been foulded himself, to add insult to injury he picked up a booking for his troubles, Thankfully the freekick from Buchanan was well dealt with easilly by Janata.
Half Time
The 2nd half started as the 1st finished, Rocks looking to frustrate the K’s forward momentum and looking to break, the frustration certaily appeared to be showing and the K’s were running out of ideas, their play in the final 3rd and final balls were lacking the quality of the first 20-25 mins, on the break the Rocks were looking at lot more threatening and the breaks were becoming more frequent.
On 60 mins a good break down our right ended with Ashman pulling the ball back to the edge of the box, the ball bounced up nicely for the onrushing Spooner to strike the ball over the stranded Tolfrey into the net via a slight deflection.
K’s 0-1 Rocks…..
K’s took the game to Rocks and in fairness looked to have run out of ideas, at the other end Jake Gordon had 2 good chances to put the game beyond doubt, Tom Stagg was defying his young age and leading the line well causing all sorts of problems for the back 4.
As we entered the final 10 mins Kingstonian started to come on strong, Janata pulled of 2/3 outstanding saves, one to his left from a header being the pick of the bunch, that coupled with some wasteful K’s finishing meant Est Thurrock were able to run down the clock including 6 minutes of injury time.
All in all a good 3 points on the road for the Rocks, Marc & Liam’s 1st league win of their rein and sure to be 1st of many.
Most importantly for the Rocks fans is the transformation from 6 weeks ago.
Good luck to K’s for the rest of the season, they will probably feel hard done by tonight, but make no mistake they are a quality side, with very good players and a great management team, they will be there or there abouts come May.
Rocks: Janata, Wyss, Rovinson, Thompson, Heath, Barton, Ashman, Spooner, Okunja (Owusu 69), Stagg, Gordon (Search 85)
Subs Not Used: Onoabhagbe
MOM – Arthur Janata – Captains Performance
