MARC Harrison was delighted to lead Basildon United to victory in their first Isthmian League clash in 27 years.

The Bees won promotion to the Isthmian North thanks to a last minute free-kick from Marcus Bowers on the final day of the Essex Senior League campaign.

And Bowers scored what proved to be the winner as Basildon secured a 2-1 win over Mildenhall Town at the Ho Ho Stadium.

Summer signing Brian Moses, who joined from Redbridge, was also on target and Harrison was pleased to see the strikers get off the mark in the opening domestic fixture of the season.

Harrison said: “Brian took a while to adapt to what we are about during pre-season but he ran Stowmarket ragged in the FA Cup last week and I was extremely proud of his performance again because he was a handful.

“His goal gave us a dream start to the second half and then Marcus came off the bench and did what he does best.

“He’ll be pleased to have followed up his goal to get us into this division with a goal in our first game in the new league.

“I’m sure he’ll be talking to me about wanting to start at the weekend and that will give me a selection headache.”

Mildenhall were not able to take a number of first half opportunities and they were made to pay when Moses lashed home less than two minutes after the break.

But the away side were back on level terms soon after the hour mark as Luke Butcher’s knock-down was volleyed home by Thomas Debenham from close range.

Bowers came off the bench and restored the Bees’ lead with 11 minutes to play.

Mildenhall were handed a golden opportunity to snatch a point when they were awarded a late penalty but John Sands sent his spot-kick over the crossbar.

And although Harrison was pleased with his side’s performance, he felt a draw would have been a fair result.

The Bees chief added: “I’m really pleased with the win.

“I thought we adapted our game to what they did. They were brilliant aerially and they asked a lot of questions of us.

“We defended superbly but I think Mildenhall will be disappointed because, in my opinion, they definitely deserved something out of the game.

“We were guilty of showing them too much respect in the first half.

“I told the boys at half-time that we needed to push up and be a bit more aggressive.

“How we applied ourselves in the second half was superb.”

Basildon United: Wheatley, Asamoah, Worrell (Bowers 71’), Nelson (Skeels 78’), Whitby, Turpin, Adlington-Pile, Barton, Moses, Spooner, Coxi-Sebastiao (Burgess 62’)