Tilbury 2 Basildon United 5

Report by Mason Hutchinson

ATT 237

FOLLOWING a 3-1 win away from home to Bury Town, the Dockers faced relegation threatened Basildon United who sat in 17th and nine points behind Tilbury.

The Dockers were hoping to continue their recent run of form to climb up the table as Basildon hoped to fight for safety in the division.

Tilbury started the game the stronger of the two sides creating three big chances in the first four minutes, but they were unable to convert any of them.

The Dockers seemed to control the game but against the run of play Basildon United hit a quick counterattack and McCullock found himself in space. From 35-yards out he hit a rocket of a strike and found the top left-hand corner to put the visitors ahead after only seven minutes. It only took two minutes for the Bees to double their lead as McCullock's strike was parried out by the keeper straight to a Basildon attacker and Nathan Fuma followed in finding the bottom right corner as the visitors proved that they were ready to battle for their spot in the league next season.

The Basildon players seemed to want it more than the home side as they continued to pile on the pressure creating another chance down the right-hand side through Nvanja, who's deep cross found an isolated McCullock for a free header, which drew a good save from Moreton.

The Dockers struggled to withstand this constant pressure though and the 22nd minute saw a long throw into the box from Basildon which the Tilbury defence failed to clear. The ball eventually fell to Nvanja for a simple strike into the net to put the Bees three goals to the good.

Tilbury tried creating chances to turn this game around, but the visitors were a lot livelier and were able to continue to attack Tilbury and in the 29th minute the Bees won a free kick on the edge of the box. Kris Newby stepped up and whipped it around the wall and beat the keeper at his own side to give Basildon United a four goal lead in under 30 minutes.

Basildon weren't finished there though, as in the 38th minute Dan Okah launched a long free kick from his own half which was misjudged by the keeper and went straight in for 5-0.

Tilbury had a chance before half time in the form of a free kick from interim manager Eljay Worrell which was heading for the bottom corner and forced a great save from Olajide.

The second half proved to be a mountain for the home side to climb if they wanted to claw back any sort of pride from this game. They started creating more chances and caused a problem for the visitors as Charles Bampoe's header was cleared off the line in the 58th minute.

Bampoe did manage to score however, as in the 67th minute he shifted past his defender on the edge of the box before striking low on his left foot. The shot took a deflection which took it past the Bees' keeper to spoil Basildon's hopes of a clean sheet. The Dockers grabbed another consolation goal late on as Brown-Bampoe attempted to revive an attack with a delicate chipped cross to the back post. The cross ricocheted off two defenders before nestling into the top right corner. Fernandes was the unlucky one who found himself on the scoresheet for the wrong team.

That was all the action at the EMR Stadium and Tilbury will be expected to put in a strong performance against local rivals and top of the league Aveley after that disappointing result.

The Dockers are in action on Monday 18th April away to Aveley at 3 o'clock. They are then in action again at Chadfields to face Barking on the final day of the season.

That fixture will take place on Saturday 23rd April at 3 o'clock.