Havant and Waterlooville left Ship Lane with the points after an excellent game, which saw them, withstand immense pressure before claiming the victory.

In a game that saw eight bookings yet no really bad tackles Thurrock started the brighter and their captain Jimmy McFarlane had a header well saved by Hawks’ keeper Gareth Howells. Thurrocks’ domination continued as both Kris Lee and Mark Goodfellow and forced good saves out of Howells. The visitors took the lead against the run of play when a mistake by Dave Collis let in Brett Poate who gave Glenn Knight in the Thurrock goal no chance with his close range shot. The lead was nearly cancelled out within a minute when a splendid move involving Lee Hodges and Lee left Martin Carthy with an open goal but he put the ball over on the stretch. With two minutes of the half left Lee was again denied by Howells who held his downward header.

Thurrock saved their best chance for first half injury time when McFarlane hit the post from Collis’ free kick and Carthy saw the rebound cleared off of the line.

The second half started the way of the first and Howells saved well again from O’Connor after an excellent pass from Goodfellow. Hodges had a long range effort well saved with twenty minutes to go but Havant were now beginning to take the play to Thurrock and with ten minutes left Rocky Baptiste inexplicably shot over from close range. Baptiste wasn’t left to rue the miss as a minute late he slotted home a penalty to double the lead after a rash challenge by Garry Cross.

Lee Hodges had another long ranger tipped over by Howells in injury time but Havant comfortably held on to record their second consecutive victory away at Thurrock.