Aveley 3, Bury Town 1

AVELEY'S impressive run of form continued at a wet and windy Parkside on Monday evening with a victory against fellow promotion contenders that lifted the Millers back into second place in the Bet Victor Isthmian North.

There was a spirited performance from the visitors, who came back once to draw level, but in the end Aveley deservedly carried the day.

Both sides took time to settle in difficult conditions in front of a crowd of 197.

Aveley began to get a grip on the game and forced a series of corners, which ultimately led to the opening goal in the 25th minute when Jason Raad's corner was headed goalwards by Harry Gibbs. Bury thought they had cleared it but the assistant referee was well placed to declare the ball had crossed the line.

Millers came close to a second soon after but Bury keeper Daniel Barden did well to keep out George Sykes' header and from the resulting corner Gibbs clipped his effort over the bar.

The rest of the half saw Aveley largely in the ascendancy but they were unable to add to their lead and they were to find themselves level three minutes into the second half when Cruise Nyadzayo netted.

But if Bury thought they had forced a chink in the increasingly impressive Aveley armour they were wrong and it took just four minutes for the lead to be restored with Sykes the scorer.

Bury weren't quite a spent force and rattled the Aveley crossbar on 68 minutes, then missing the opportunity to slice the rebound into an open goal.

And the visitors' hopes were finally ended on 79 minutes when Wyan Reid's strong shot found Barden wanting and the Millers were home and hosed – quite literally in the rain, but it couldn't put a dampener on spirits.