Tilbury 2, Enfield 1

THIS scrappy, fractious encounter won't live long in the memory, other than it might just turn out to be a landmark, if somewhat fortuitous victory for Tony Cross's beleaguered Dockers.

Enfield left Chadfields claiming they had been kicked off the park but their sense of ill-justice would more properly placed with lady luck and a lack of their own ability to put a Ryman Division One north match they dominated in large parts beyond the grasp of the hosts, who hadn't won in any competition on their own turf since April.

For sure, Tilbury were uncompromising in their approach, but you can't blame them for that in their current perilous position. Nor I suspect, will manager Cross be asking his side, which contained the almost obligatory debutant in Erkan Yusuf, to change their attitude in future.

They rode their luck, Cross among them as he was about to replace match winner Jordan Tolan at the moment when he scored after 70 minutes of doing very little, but their they shall not pass' attitude which was typified by one or two brutal tackles and the shot-stopping antics of keeper Dean Neil, was just what was needed in dire circumstances.

As a spectacle, the match was awful. For long spells it was more interesting to watch the acrobatic exhibition of model aeroplane enthusiasts in a neighbouring field where the free-flowing airborne movement was in stark contrast to the stuttering inefficiencies of 20 outfield players on the ground below them.

Not that it was a game of few chances. Both sides were so bad it was inevitable that defences would be breached, the first occasion coming after just two minutes when the ball broke kindly to Yusuf, the latest recruit - this time from Burnham Ramblers - in a line of more than 40 who have worn the Dockers shirt this season. He had time and space to pick his spot from the edge of the box but lamely fired past the post.

Enfield had already bemoaned Tilbury's combative style before a crushing tackle by Martyn Guest left Owen Beale in a crumpled, screaming heap. During the five minutes or more it took to get him back on his feet Enfield kept up a torrent of criticism of the ref for doing nothing about it, which included their manager joining the action with a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse that also went unchecked by the officials - something that must have perplexed Cross and his assistant Gary Heywood who have both been sent off this season for far less!

When play eventually restarted Enfield continued to protest most decisions and it was clear their concentration had been broken, never-more-so than in the 21st minute when Nana Badu opened the scoring in his inimitable style, barging his way through three attempted tackles. On finding the ball still at his feet after an apparent game of ping pong with his rivals, he clinically slide the ball past keeper Paul Daley.

Minutes later, in Tilbury's brightest spell of the game and in a move untypical of anything else in the match, they carved open Enfield with a fine sequence of passes that ended with Badu's shot flashing across the face of the goal.

At the other end, as Enfield began to get their game together, Sherwin Stanley headed wide when well placed. Together with the gangly John Stephenson, who showed up in most of the game's few moments of quality, he was the pick of Enfield's players and it was their combination on 35 minutes that put the visitors level.

Stanley broke the home side's offside trap but was forced wide by the onrushing Neil. The striker kept his composure and, with Neil rushing back to goal, stood up a high ball into the box which was met with a well directed header by Stephenson that looped past the scrambling keeper's despairing dive.

Other than a booking for Badu, and the same player getting involved in a collision with Daley that was ultimately to prove highly significant, that was about it for the first half.

The second was dominated in large part by Enfield, who pinned Tilbury back after the resumption.

Stephenson forced a magnificent save from Neil and then Neil Hughes ought to have scored but shot wide as the visitors laid virtual siege to the home goal.

However a mixture of poor finishing, desperate defending and Neil's agility kept them out.

Cross had already made one change, replacing Guest with Tyrone Thomas and was about to make his second, hauling off Tolan when things turned his favour. Danny Jones was stripped and ready to come on and Tolan's number about to be up when he picked the ball up some 35 yards out and decided, probably more in hope and frustration than anything else, to take a pot shot. It wasn't a clean strike but bobbled goal wards through a melee of players and he was probably as surprised as anyone else when it went into the net with Daley, who had been hampered by injury since that first half collision, caught flat-footed ad motionless as the ball rolled past him.

Jones was sat down and Tolan's number put back in the box and Tilbury will hope that their little bit of good fortune might just change their season.

Certainly the goal took the steam out of Enfield, who lost their way afterwards. The nearest they got to an equaliser being a fine cross-come-shot by Martin Young that rolled across the face of a gaping goal and just past the post.

In fact it was Tilbury who looked most likely to get another goal, and they came close to doing so right at the end when Manley Brown, who was otherwise totally anonymous in the match, brought a great save from Daley who belied his injury to get down to a low drive.

A third goal for Tilbury would have been an unfair reflection on the match and would only have heaped more upset on Enfield who already felt hard done to. Not that Dockers will worry about that.

Their relief at finally breaking the home hoodoo was encapsulated in great celebrations at the end and they will be hoping for a repeat act when Ilford visit Chadfields on Tuesday.

Tilbury: Dean Neil, George Alder, Martyn Guest (Tyrone Thomas), Bradley Smart, Nicky Symmon, Paul King, Manley Brown, Erkan Yusuf, Nana Badu, Jordan Tolan, Jerome Boyce (Danny Jones).