Tilbury 2

Ware 1

TILBURY returned to winning ways by seeing off a struggling Ware side with a dominant second-half display, writes Anthony Mercer.

Dockers boss Paul Vaughan made three changes to his starting line up, bringing in Donovan Simmonds, Luke I’Anson and Danny Francis to start in place of the unavailable Piers Wixon, Joe Christou and Ryan Blackman.

The Chadfields outfit started strongly and should have been in front inside 12 seconds when Nathan Ashton hit wide from a Rimmel Daniel cross. Minutes later, Sam Cutler hit a volley over the crossbar as they laid siege.

Finally the pressure paid off on 10 minutes when a stray back pass by Dean Gilbert led to debutant Donovan Simmonds being brought down in the box by keeper Rhys Madden, and the referee pointed to the spot.

Ware appealed, saying there was no contact, but the ref was in no doubt. And – on his 50th appearance for the club – Aaron Waters slotted home to open the scoring. The Dockers dominated up to the break and should have been further in front as Simmonds, Joe Nightingill and Francis all went close. At the start of the second period, Daniel also came close but managed to side foot wide. Then in the 53rd minute Ware had a good chance when Anthony Anstead broke forward and found Dave Hunt, who blazed over the crossbar.

Dockers increased their lead in the 64th minute when a brilliant Ashton through ball found Daniel in space, and he fired home a left-foot shot.

The match was far from over, though, and Ware never let up.

They bagged a deserved goal in the 72 minute when a free kick found the Tony Martin, and he headed in.

Two minutes later Ware keeper Madden made a fine save from a thunderbolt free kick from Ashton. Ware almost drew level when Gilbert’s header was tipped over by home keeper Chico Ramos. But Tilbury held on to gain three valuable points to keep in touch with the teams pushing for play off places.

Vaughan said: “I was pleased with our passing today.

“We created good chances and I am pleased with the debutants.” The result sees Tilbury move up one place to 12th.

Tilbury: Ramos, Mead, Waters, Nightingill, West, I’Anson, Daniel (Babalola 67), Francis (Cook 70), Simmonds (Weemes 89), Cutler, Ashton.