If his plan was to shake any complacency out of his team, it worked a treat and they were at Ilford from the off. Even the loss of Huggins after eight minutes when he turned an ankle didn’t dent the flow and his replacement, Neil Richmond, marked his return to the side after a lengthy injury with an imposing performance and two goals.
Millers remain in 20th place; their survival hopes seemed to rest on a run of four home games in nine days but they have now lost the first two and leaders Sutton are next up.
AVELEY’S Ryman Premier survival hopes took a turn for the worse with this home defeat. Maidstone took the lead on 19 minutes when Michael Philips’ quick free kick caught the Aveley defence sleeping and 18-year-old Alex Flisher netted his first senior goal.
Having said that, no-one could realistically argue that East Thurrock didn’t deserve the points. They were the dominant side all afternoon and even though their second goal owed much to a poor decision by ref Adrian Oldershaw, they always appeared to be in control of their destiny.
From the start both teams looked up for a game as the ball moved easily from end to end. Athletic set up the first attack when Tom Harvey released debutant Danny Hearty for his shot to go just wide of the goal. Wingate came straight back when Murat Karagul put a pass through to Gary Burrell for the shot to go wide. The Blues set about putting the away defence to task with a period of sustained pressure where the Wingate forwards looked surplus to requirements.
Thurrock picked up three vital points with second half goals from Jamie Richards and Jake Lee, with St Albans regaining their ten point deduction for breach of rules, perhaps only temporarily, but the effect was to take them above Thurrock and drop the fleet into the relegation zone.
Essex County FA Chief Executive Phil Sammons commented: “Our football workforce has shaped The FA’s National Game Strategy, which resulted in a four-year investment worth £220m across the Country from The FA. Last year, the majority of our stakeholders thought we were doing a good job of promoting and developing the grassroots game in the County.”
Brentwood looked strong and it did seem just a matter of time before they equalised. Brentwood forced a corner in the 30th minute. The ball went into the heart of the area but Blewitt rose high to force the ball into the back of the net.
Thurrock were awarded a free kick mid way in the Havant Half, Reece Harris took the kick, his cross failed to penetrate the area, Havant defence partially cleared only for the ball to be sent back and wide on the right, Kenny Clark collected the ball and his cross shot eluded the keeper at his near post and dropped over the line for a well earned equaliser at the far post.
It started so well as Ryan Salmon grabbed the first after ten minutes and then Kenny Beaney scored the second from the spot to increase the advantage.
But these are nervous times down the bottom of the Ryman Premier and managerless Carshalton clawed their way back into the game with goals from Matt Reece and Joel Ledgister
So while Market look like that marathon runner who, having led for a long time is swallowed up by the pack. Rocks boss John Coventry a veteran marathon runner himself will appreciate the analogy. East Thurrock now have to be the leading runner with their eyes fixed on the road in front as they go in search of gold
In the second half Thurrock started to take more control of the game and started to play some great football. On the hour they were inches away from taking the lead, Matt Bodkin and Dean Cracknell started the move that found Danny Hockton who was able to strike a fierce right footed shot that hit the inside of the post and disappointingly came out and away to safety.
Of course it wasn't helped that Duran Reynolds had a fairly poor game and Duran in turn wasn't helped that Junior Baker was somewhat restricted in his movement as he decided he would rather looks like a reject from the Wu-Tang Clan than a professional footballer as he spent the whole game with his shorts so low that he couldn't lift his legs.
