THE Isthmian North season may only be two matches old but it's been a great start for borough sides Tilbury and Aveley who sit first and second respectively after wins on Saturday.

Tilbury, who gave a debut to Lee Noble, backed up their impressive opening day win at Cambridge City with a 2-0 victory at home against Dereham Town, despite ending the game with just ten men for the third successive match.

David Knight saw red in their preliminary round FA Cup defeat at Coggeshall and Cameron Brodie was dismissed at Cambridge. Against Dereham they had to do without Darren Phillips who saw red on 71 minutes but at that point the visitors were also down to ten men following the departure of Thomas Matthews and they were two down thanks to Tilbury goals from Brian Moses on 36 minutes and Marlon Agyakwa four minutes into the second half.

To compound a bad day for Dereham, who had been beaten at Aveley the week before, they ended the game with nine men after sub Charlie Dickerson was sent off with 13 minutes to go.

Aveley travelled to Mayesbrook Park to face Romford and a tight derby ended with a 1-0 win thanks to Harry Gibbs' goal, headed in from close range a set piece delivery after 80 minutes.

It was a tight match throughout and Romford proved a difficult side to break down as Aveley enjoyed lots of possession and always threatened on the break with Bagasan Graham a constant threat but in their end they deserved the victory.

In the same division it was a bad day for Grays who went down 4-0 at Parkside to visitors Canvey Island who never looked back after taking a seventh minute lead from Evans Kouassi and added goals from Joseph Auwatubilluda (40), Elliott Ronto (66) and Harrison Chatting (71).

In the Isthmian Premier East Thurrock United went down 3-1 at home to Cray Wanderers.

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Injury ruled out Rocks' main striker Alfie Cue and key defenders Mike Agboola and Mike Castle and though they made a decent start Cray took the lead on 26 minutes when Joe Taylor found space on the edge of the box to fire past Arthur Janata in the home goal.

Cray soon doubled their lead when Rocks were caught out at the back, and Taylor was left with the simplest of tap-ins.

Freddie Parker pounced to tuck a loose ball past Janata for a third on 55 minutes before Jon Nzengo gave East Thurrock a late consolation with a goal four minutes from time when he when Jon Nzengo cut into the box from the right and tucked the ball inside the far post.

East Thurrock will have the chance to bounce back quickly when Carshalton Athletic visit on Tuesday night.