CLASSY THURROCK CRUISE TO VICTORY

The Thurrock sides display was the perfect way for the club to mark it’s 1000^th game.

Colin McBride’s men were quite simply awesome and the Sutton defence was under siege from the first whistle. In the opening minute Cliff Akurang made a great run down the right hand side and sent over a great cross, which Tresor Kandol just failed to connect with. The Sutton side never got out of their own half and were pinned back by the constant Thurrock pressure. Eventually, after just 4 minutes their efforts were rewarded when they forced a corner kick. Dave Collis delivered a perfect ball and Cliff Akurang headed powerfully into the centre of the goal giving the keeper no chance.

Just moments later Akurang again burst past the Sutton defenders to put Kandol clear through forcing the keeper to make a brave stop at the feet of the Thurrock hitman.  Thurrock’s midfield continued to dominate the game and time and again they opened up the Sutton rearguard allowing Kandol and Akurang to cause panic in the home sides penalty area.

The pressure proved too much for Andy Iga in the Sutton goal and he was fortunate after fumbling a Dave Collis corner to see the ball scrambled to safety.  Within minutes Terry Bowes saw his clever lob hit a post and the rebound cleared for yet another corner.

It seemed that every time Thurrock attacked that they would score and Iga had a very shaky time of it. After the half-hour mark Thurrock extended their lead and again Dave Collis was the provider. His long throw in into the near post was met by the alert Paul Linger who beat everyone to the ball to score from close range.

Still shell-shocked by Fleet’s pace and determination they went further behind just two minutes later when Kris Lee scored a superb solo effort. Paul Linger won an important challenge just inside his own half and released a defence splitting pass that Kris Lee latched onto beating a defender to leave them all in his wake as he set off on a 20 yard run, drawing Iga out to the edge of his area before cooly placing a fierce shot into the empty goal for a classic finish.

As one would have expected, the Sutton team came out with all guns blazing for the start of the second half but never really posed a threat until the 62^nd minute when the ball was somehow sent over the crossbar from a corner. Martyn Lawrence went close with a header and Kandol again forced the keeper into a hurried save.

Then came the save of the match. A Sutton corner fell at the feet of Matt Hanlan who must have thought his shot was in but a brilliant reflex save from Fleet’s Paul Gothard saw the ball pushed over the bar to deny the Sutton man a goal.

Thurrock forced a number of corners and Jimmy McFarlane was unlucky twice not to score.

The only blemish on what was a highly entertaining game for the 431 spectators, was the sending off of Sutton’s Scott Corbett for a wild challenge on Mark Goodfellow.

Thurrock almost extended their lead when they were awarded a free kick just 3 yards out after Iga picked up a ball from his defender who was under pressure from Martyn Lawrence. The resultant kick caused panic in the box and was again scrambled away for yet another corner.

The final score was nothing more than Thurrock deserved on a night when they really did put on a magnificent display.