Match photos

Thurrock eased through to Monday morning’s FA Trophy draw after a strange game against Burgess Hill.

Five minutes in, Lee Hodges opened the scoring from 25 yards. He picked the ball up on the halfway line beat one and played a one-two with Tresor Kandol and found himself 30 yards from goal. One shoulder dip sent three defenders the wrong way and a Hodges special was unleashed into the bottom corner. Thurrock looked as if they were going to win comfortably and were unlucky not to double the lead when Johnny Buffong headed Marc Goodfellow’s pinpoint cross just wide. Burgess Hill did get a chance on the quarter hour but Billy McMahon made an excellent save from the 20 yard effort. After 20 minutes a Dave Collis cross was firmly headed towards goal by Kandol but it went straight at the keeper who didn’t know a lot about it. Thurrock’s domination was absolute with the defence strong and Ryan Kirby’s no nonsense tackling and approach to the game bossing the midfield. However, things took a turn after 28 minutes, the Referee blew for a foul against Kandol and next thing produced a red card, for what can only have been Kandol’s reaction to the decision. Thurrock tightened up at the back and left Cliff Akurang up front on his own. Thurrock saw half time through comfortably and were still the most likely to score. With five minutes of the half left Collis’ surging run up the left wing gave him space to cross and Buffong’s header went wide.

Colin McBride decided to change formation to cope with the fact that Fleet were down to ten men. Off came wide players Hodges and Buffong and they were replaced by Martyn Lawrence and Kris Lee in an attempt to tighten things up.

Eight minutes into the second half Burgess Hill scored an equaliser. A cross into the box evaded Richard Goddard and Fillery scored with a well taken backwards header. Things seemed to be against Thurrock, but they showed their character with four goals in ten minutes. Three minutes after the Burgess Hill goal Jimmy McFarlane headed a Collis free kick past the keeper at the near post but the lead was nearly lost just before the hour when a wonderful passing movement by Burgess Hill saw the centre forward clear against McMahon, who once again pulled off a tremendous save. The game was won on the hour when Kris Lee’s cross field ball found Akurang who beat the same defender three times before slotting home. It was Lee’s turn to get into the act next. Akurang’s flick found him just inside the box, he muscled the defender off the ball and passed into the far corner of the net from 12 yards. The fifth came two minutes after that and was the goal of the day. Lee’s cross found Akurang who controlled on his thigh and volleyed home Van Bastenesque from a tight angle. Thurrock eased down and only had two more decent chances in the last twenty minutes. Lee was unlucky with a turn and shot from the edge of the box and McFarlane capped a fine display with his second of the game headed into the net from another Collis cross.

The last ten minutes saw McFarlane playing at centre forward due to a strain, but he looked like the complete centre forward chasing the ball down and even running down the right wing.

 Man of the Match: Ryan Kirby

 Thurrock: McMahon, Goodfellow, Collis, Goddard, McFarlane©, Hodges (Lawrence 45), Heffer, Kirby, Buffong (Lee 45), Kandol, Akurang (Martin 68)