A FEAST of football this Easter weekend. East Thurrock get the ball rolling on Good Friday with a cracker against Canvey Island. Grays Athletic have now reached the summit of the league. Now they face Romford and Aveley in the space of two days. There is also a great local derby at Ship Lane as the Rocks travel to Thurrock.
A late strike from Paul Cobb clinched the Essex Saturday Veterans Cup for Little Thurrock Dynamos as Heath Park were narrowly edged-out, 2-1, at Heybridge Swifts FC’s Scraley Road home. After many of the Little Thurrock squad having also won the competition with Ockendon twelve months earlier, Cobb’s intervention proved a timely one as his team mates were left to celebrate a second successive title.
GRAYS Athletic go to the top of the league with an eleventh win in a row. Three points clear and a game in hand. Frustration for East Thurrock and Thurrock.
GRAYS Athletic come from behind to take all three points at Soham as they win 2-1 and go level on points at the top of the league with Maldon and Tiptree. Goals by strikers Joe Sweeney and Jack West.
The last month of the season and now every game has an importance to it. Grays can't stop winning. A settle side that is playing on instinct, confidence and drive. Thurrock's draw against Concord was vital as slowly, the Fleet rise above the relegation zone.
WHILE the outcome may not have been unexpected given the respective Ryman Premier league positions and East Thurrock’s propensity to draw matches this season, this was desperately disappointing result for the home side who went into the match on the back of three wins and on the balance of play will have felt they should have taken all three points.
TWO FROM Junior Baker and two from Jeff Hammond saw Grays Athletic defeat the Dockers and move to within three points of the top of the league.
But the brave Dockers never gave up and twice came from a goal behind to level the match.
A FIRST half blitz from Needham Market was too much for Aveley to overcome as they fell to a 4-1 defeat on the road in Suffolk. First half goals from Jemel Fox, and two in a minute from Sam Newsom and Bradley Barber in a remarkable opening quarter of an hour all but wrapped up the three points for the home side before the break.
A disappointing result but against perhaps the best side to have been to Ship Lane this season it was a fair result.Thurrock started well and could have taken the lead in the first minute but for Whitehawk keeper clawing away on the goal line.
GRAYS Athletic continued their push for promotion with an impressive 4-1 victory against Potters Bar Town. It was a minor miracle that the match was on after a deluge of rain (well done to the ground staff and fork-bearing fans!) and to a great extent the sodden pitch was dictating the match as players struggled with the conditions.
The blue juggernaut marches on as Grays Athletic demolished Norfolk outfit Wroxham, 4-0 at Rush Green Stadium.
The team seem to be scoring at will and scoring from all angles. To prove the point, full back and squad player, David East opened the scoring with a 25-yard pile driver.
IT was supposed to be a match to promote the "Kick racism out of football" but in the end the match had to be abandoned due to five Wingate and Finchley players being sent off against Thurrock. Ironically, it was not, according to Thurrock sources, a bad tempered match.
In the 53td minute David Bryant pounced from close range. Three minutes later Sam Higgins got on the score sheet who took advantage of a great through ball by Ross Parmenter to thread the ball past the Robins keeper. The Rocks took their foot off the gas and perhaps tried to walk the ball in.
Thurrock seemed happy to hold off Boro and gave Manager Mark Stimson the opportunity to use all three subs and with Jack Paxman and new boy Jamal Dobson up front Thurrock were favourites to score again and it was Dobson who sealed the win in the 79th minute when put thro he was stronger than his marker and fired a splendid drive beating the keeper at the near post.
