THURROCK CRASH AT TOWN

Braintree began the day on the bottom of the league and for many home fans they were concerned that this would be another defeat. The initial start to the game must have made their concerns see likely to turn to reality.

Some of Thurrock’s early play suggested that it would be a long afternoon for the home side.

All of the early openings went to the Thurrock side but a combination of some tidy defending and some fortunate deflections saw Cliff Akurang and Kris Lee denied on a few occasions.

Jimmy McFarlane went close with a header from a corner and moments later Akurang was desperately unlucky to see his header go inches over the crossbar.

Braintree lost their keeper Paul Rutherford after 20 minutes after he had saved at the feet of Akurang. The protestations of the home side and their supporters persuaded the referee to caution the Fleet striker much to his surprise, and this was to have repercussions in the dying minutes of the game.

The replacement keeper for Town was Scott White and he was soon in action denying yet another Fleet effort on goal.

Just as the half time mark approached, Fleet found themselves behind to a Mark Jones goal. An innocuous looking through ball was only half cleared and as it was pinged into the box Jones managed to get a toe on the end of it to steer it past Paul Gothard and in off the underside of the crossbar into the net.

Despite Thurrock’s domination of the second half they could not get the goal they deserved. The Braintree side rode their luck at times and never really looked to extend their lead. White made a great save to tip a Mike Basham effort away for a corner. Terry Bowes and Martyn Lawrence got behind the defence on more than one occasion to deliver good quality balls into the area but again the chances went begging.

In the final minute of the game Cliff Akurang was harshly adjudged to have bought down an opponent and the referee showed him a second yellow card and sent him off.  This ended a disappointing day for Thurrock.