Report Courtesy of Neil Speight from The Essex Enquirer
HAD Saturday’s Ryman One North opener been a boxing match, it would have been stopped at half time with the visitors so far ahead on points. But football goes the distance and though Rocks finally edged ahead, they were caught by the classic sucker punch.
Home keeper Godwin-Green emerged Rovers’ hero with a string of fine saves and when he was beaten his defenders proved equally good blockers with Steve Heffer pulling off two fine goalline clearances.
The only blot on Heffer’s copybook was a late red card for a trip on Kye Ruel as he bore down on goal.
Ruel had earlier been the one to break the deadlock with a well-taken solo goal, but it was quickly ruled out by an opportunist strike from Dan Trenkel after some schoolboy East Thurrock defending.
There had been little to suggest what was to follow in a tepid, unsettled opening ten minutes when Rovers came close to scoring as Richard Wray tipped a cross-come-shot over his crossbar but once Rocks got into their stride it was one way traffic for the next 35 minutes.
A quickly taken free kick saw Ryan Sammons and Kris Newby combine to set up Max Cornhill but he headed wide. On 11 minutes Jimmy Webb, on his return to Burroughs Park, then shimmied his way through the home defence but his shot was saved by Godwin-Green.
Moments later, a rare Wakering attack was broken up by an attempted tackle by Webb on Joe Gardner who tumbled theatrically but ref Mark Tweed waved away claims for a penalty.
The ball was quickly shifted to the other end where Ruel burst through on the right and unselfishly crossed for another former Rovers player, Neil Richmond, and though his pass was poor the striker conjured up an on-target overhead kick that was parried by Godwin-Green and then hacked clear as Cornhill tried to bundle it home in a hectic scramble.
Godwin-Green then foiled another Richmond strike and Newby’s follow-up was blocked. A superbly delivered Webb free kick then flashed across the face of goal with a diving Cornhill millimetres away from the decisive touch and moments later Rocks had claims for a penalty when Newby was bundled into the back of the net as he challenged for a header. Ref Tweed at first appeared minded to give the spot-kick but after consulting his assistant opted for a goal-kick.
The Rocks pressure continued and Cornhill saw Heffer scrambled his strike off the line and the defender was in the right place again soon after to deny Richmond.
In a rare Rovers foray forward on 43 minutes Trenkel came close to scoring but prodded the ball over the bar from close range.
‘Normal’ service was resumed at the other end with a run at goal by Ruel who slipped the ball to Richmond but his effort drifted just past the upright and then Stanley Muguo thumped by superb 25 yard shot against the upright with Godwin-Green stranded.
The half ended with the ball finally in the back of the Rovers net thanks to a superb curling shot from Joe Keith, but Mr Tweed had whistled for the break in the same second as the Rocks player pulled the trigger! It summed up a half of maybes for Rocks who could easily have gone in four or five ahead but Rovers were somehow still in the match.
Muguo failed to come out for the second half, replaced by Steve Harrison because of a niggling injury, but the tempo of the match looked likely to be the same as Rocks ploughed forward again and Godwin-Green had to make a scrambling save from Ruel.
Wakering made a couple of changes of their own soon after with Luca Frankis and John Bradley coming on for Joel Barnett and Stuart Judd and that added more mobility to their attack and they began to play and defend much further up the pitch.
That appeared to inhibit the Rocks flow and as their full backs were denied time and space to orchestrate play, allowing Rovers to get into the match.
Rocks’ frustration was summed up by Newby who committed a couple of needless fouls, culminating in a yellow card, and he was soon followed into the book by Richmond who commented out of turn.
Rocks were still creating chances and from a well-worked free kick Godwin-Green was again called on to make a good stop to deny Cornhill.
Rocks made a second change on 76 minutes, replacing Webb with Lee Hodges and almost immediately they broke the deadlock when Ruel picked the ball up just inside the Wakering half and set off for goal, outpacing the defence and coolly slotting the ball past Godwin-Green.
However, the visitors had barely finished celebrating when Wakering won a corner which Bradley delivered ‘into the mix’. The visitors’ defence were sleeping and allowed the ball to bounce in the six yard box, a cardinal error by any standards, and Trenkel seized the opportunity to hook the ball on the half-volley into the roof of the net.
Rocks pressed forward with renewed vigour and Godwin-Green pulled off a good save to keep out Keith’s well-struck free-kick.
With ten minutes to go it looked as if Ruel would repeat his score when he outpaced Heffer but the defender clipped his legs on the edge of the box. He rightly saw red but it was of little consolation to East Thurrock as the resulting free kick was only smashed against the wall.
There was still time for Ruel to shoot over after great build-up play, his last contribution before being replaced by Martin Llewellyn for the closing couple of minutes, but ironically the last serious goalmouth action came at the other end when Rocks’ defence again went to sleep, allowing lively youngster Frankis a free header which looked destined to creep inside the post until Wray tipped it round the post at full strength.
It would have been a travesty of justice had Rovers nicked all the points but they deserve credit for hanging on when the going was tough in the first half. Rocks, on the other hand, can take plenty of encouragement from the first half and if they dominate games like that again, they surely can’t spurn as many chances.
