Tilbury held as battling Witham show their mettle (From Thurrock Gazette)

Tilbury held as battling Witham show their mettle

6:22pm Saturday 20th December 2008

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Tilbury 1, Witham Town 1
TILBURY and Witham served up an entertaining pre-Christmas game which ended with honours deservedly even.

That there were only two goals was down to some wayward finishing from both sides and both managers will have left Chadfields thinking they could have taken three, rather than one, Ryman One North points from the game.

Tilbury went into the match on the back of five straight wins and, with Witham in the drop zone, pundits might have expected a comfortable victory for the home side.

And for the opening exchanges it looked likely as Tilbury pegged Town back with visiting keeper Rhys Madden busy picking a number of balls out of the air with Tilbury forwards unwilling to make the final challenge.

However, it was Witham who were to strike first after just five minutes when a speedy counter attack saw Sam Taylor, who spent his teenage years under Mark Stimson at Grays, pick the ball up on the left and he cut inside the box before sliding a well-placed shot past the outstretched arms of Andy Hall.

Tilbury showed plenty of promise in response, but rarely created a clear cut opening - one of their best coming on 16 minutes when Jamie Wallace crossed and Chris Stowe got in an acrobatic strike, only to see Madden grab the ball with some ease.

They ought to have got back on level terms on 26 minutes when Madden flapped at Greg Cohen’s corner and the ball fell to Greg Burrell. However, with the goal at his mercy, he blazed horrendously high over the bar.

Junior Baker then joined Tilbury’s attack to head another Cohen corner into the side netting and six minutes before the break Burrell got a chance to correct his earlier error when Madden again flapped at a cross. From an almost identical position Burrell kept his strike at ground level this time but Kaan Hawes cleared off the line to spare his keeper’s blushes.

There was still time in the first half for Burrell to go close again, this time flashing an angled drive across the ace of goal which Madden pushed away for a corner.

Burrell was in the action early in the second half, putting in a cross which Stowe headed over before Witham showed their pace on he counter attack, setting Thomas Robinson free and Hall did well to save at his near post.

Both sides were showing a marked reluctance to shoot when chances did appear but that was perhaps explained by another shocker of a miss, Wallace firing the ball into near orbit on 65 minutes from Rashid Kamara’s cutback. It was to be the Dockers’ captain’s last act as he was immediately replaced by Jason Fontaine.

Witham were continuing to look dangerous on the break, particularly as Dockers pushed forward in search of the equaliser and the defence was certainly missing when the always impressive Ricky Modeste showed plenty of trickery before clipping in a cross which just escaped the boot of unmarked Hawes with the goal at his mercy.

Dockers boss Graham Chester rang his final changes in quick succession, Manlee Brown replacing Stowe and new signing Emmanual Sackey making his debut at the expense of Michael Black.

Brown had the chance to make an immediate impact when put through but he failed to make a contact with the ball allowing Madden to make a brave save at his feet but the home keeper could do little on 78 minutes when Dockers got their equaliser.

The chance was created by a pinpoint pass from Cohen that released Fontaine and from an angle he lofted the ball over the keeper’s head. Cynics might say it was a cross gone wrong but the diminutive Dockers celebrated as if he meant it.

Bizarrely, having seized the initiative with an equaliser, Dockers failed to press home the impetus and in the closing ten minutes it was Witham who came closest to a winner, Nicholas Moore being denied by Hall and Chris Glibbery firing just wide of the upright.

A draw was a fair result though and it maintains Dockers’ unbeaten run as they prepare for next week’s derby clash at East Thurrock, while Witham - if they keep up this performance level - will surely move up the table and out of trouble.

Tilbury boss Graham Chester was disappointed with his team afterwards, saying: "To be honest I thought we were going to lose.

"It looked like one of those days. We had chances but the players didn't show the confidence to take them which is suprising gien the run we've ben on. I couldn't quite understand it.

"Having said that, having got out of it with a draw means we got something from the game which can't be bad and we are still have a good string of results and I'm looking forward to the East Thurrock game."

Tilbury: Andy Hall, Danny Smith, Joe Keith, Rickie Hayles, Junior Baker, Jamie Wallace (Jason Fontaine), Greg Cohen, Michael Black (Emmanual Sackey), Rashid Kamara, Chris Stowe (Manlee Brown), Gary Burrell. Subs not used: Patrick Gaskin, Zubair Hazeem.

Attendance: 77.

Ryman One North, up to and inc Sat, Dec 20

		P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1	Aveley	21	14	6	1	46	20	+26	48
2	Waltham Abbey	21	14	4	3	52	20	+32	46
3	Brentwood Town	21	13	5	3	40	19	+21	44
4	East Thurrock United	21	14	2	5	44	27	+17	44
5	Ware	22	14	2	6	45	31	+14	44
6	Concord Rangers	22	11	5	6	40	19	+21	38
7	Northwood	22	11	5	6	33	24	+9	38
8	Wingate & Finchley	18	9	7	2	33	17	+16	34
9	Redbridge	20	9	6	5	38	21	+17	33
10	Tilbury	23	9	5	9	37	32	+5	32
11	Cheshunt	19	9	2	8	27	25	+2	29
12	Great Wakering Rovers	23	8	5	10	32	38	-6	29
13	Leyton	22	8	4	10	33	30	+3	28
14	Potters Bar Town (-1)	22	7	6	9	29	29	0	26
15	Enfield Town	19	7	4	8	41	40	+1	25
16	Maldon Town (-3)	20	8	3	9	25	31	-6	24
17	Thamesmead Town	22	6	6	10	27	39	-12	24
18	Chatham Town	21	5	2	14	21	39	-18	17
19	Ilford	21	4	1	16	11	47	-36	13
20	Waltham Forest	22	3	3	16	19	49	-30	12
21	Witham Town	18	3	2	13	20	52	-32	11
22	Hillingdon Borough	22	2	1	19	16	60	-44	7

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