Report
The improvements in spirit and play seen in the last match were nowhere evident in today’s match. It may have been that two signings last week moved straight on to Grays without kicking a ball; it may have been the lack of strike force with Tommy Lee Jr still suspended whatever the problem, very little went right for the Lilywhites today.
Tilbury, below Leyton Pennant in the division, was almost as bad as the Lilywhites but they were slightly sharper in attack. I took them nine minutes before their first try on goal but Del Francois shot a mile wide from a good scoring position. This spurred the Lilywhites from their dreams and they took hold of the midfield for the next twenty minutes: midfield passes from Tilley were finding their target and O’Brien was cutting through the midfield. It was, however Tilbury’s attack which was the slightly less blunt, at least they were getting in scoring positions often for Francois to head over or kick wide as he did in the eighteenth minute.
On the twentieth minute, Scott Williams had to go off injured for a short time, this again spurred Tilbury into action but they were unable to do anything inside the penalty area. The Lilywhites broke well from this attack with Reilly leading the attack on the left. O’Brien found himself free in front of the goal but hesitated and shot wide when he should really have scored.
Tilbury scored the first goal on the fortieth minute when Steve Harrison found himself free on the edge of the Lilywhites’ area. His first time shot flew into the right hand corner of the net. Again, the Lilywhites came out for the second half looking more purposeful and got the deserved equaliser on 55 minutes. They took control of the game for the next fifteen minutes and looked good for a point.
Their dreams were dashed on 67 minutes when the Leyton Pennant forwards failed to put any pressure on the Tilbury ‘keeper. His long clearance came to leave side goal line at the Lilywhites’ end. Tilbury won the corner and slept when the kick was taken. Mully headed home at the near post and won the three points for Tilbury. The Lilywhites threatened little after that with most of their play breaking down through poor passing.