JUST four days after a defeat at the hands of bottom club Leatherhead and the departure of manager Paul Martin, East Thurrock United belied their lowly Isthmian Premier position with a hard-fought and deserved 2-0 win against promotion-chasing Lewes tonight (Tuesday, 9 November).

Under the guidance of caretaker manager Jim Cooper after Martin quit, Rocks were busy from the start and their work-rate was high as they matched Lewes (known as the Rooks), who went into the match in fifth place with eyes on third spot, in every department.

East Thurrock's good start was rewarded on 13 minutes when leading scorer Alex Hernandez netted from the spot for his fifth league goal of the season.

And he was to claim his sixth, also from the penalty spot, seven minutes from time.

Lewes, whose lack of ability to get past the continued efforts of a determined Rocks side must have frustrated the travelling support in a crowd of 193, forced a great save from Arthur Janata in the closing moments but they had no answer to East Thurrock's endeavor and slipped out of the play-off zone, while Rocks rose to 17th.

After the match Rocks chairman Steve Wiseman said: "I would like to personally thank my good friend Jimmy Cooper and his coach Warren Fenton,for stepping into the breach this evening after Paul stepped down on Saturday.

"Superb tactics and management skills from a very experienced duo, Jim and Warren have worked so hard in the last two day in sorting out how we had to perform. The lads took it all on board, carrying it out to the smallest detail, well done.

"This evening's performance was absolutely brilliant, the boys battled for every ball from start to finish. It was a superb team effort from everyone involved.

"Thank you Jim and Warren for what you did tonight, a lot of people's moral was lifted immensely. The club can't thank you enough."

Danny Scopes' first outing as the new manager of Aveley ended in disappointment this evening with a 2-0 defeat at Maldon & Tiptree in the Isthmian Velocity Trophy second round.

Scopes and his assistant Lee Minshull were appointed on Sunday, just hours after the dismissal of Keith Rowland who had guided the Millers to fourth place in the Isthmian North where they sat level on points with tonight's cup opponents but head by a slightly better goal difference.

However, they fell behind to Carlee Hughes' 11th minute goal and conceded a second to Malachi Napa four minutes later and never recovered.