Witham Town 0 Tilbury 1

FOLLOWING the disappointment of a home defeat the previous week at the hands of relegation rivals Great Wakering Rovers Tilbury had to pick themselves up ahead of a busy Easter weekend playing Saturday and Monday.

The first of those two fixtures would be Witham Town on (Saturday, 8, April), in a game where both teams would massively benefit from obtaining all three points.

Tilbury started the day in the bottom two of the table after Coggeshall were awarded the points for a game abandoned deep in added time.

A win could potentially see The Dockers climb back into the relegation play-off places, whereas Witham could also potentially secure safety with a win, with othert results going their way.

Alfie Whiteaker returned to the Dockers starting XI alongside Koby Yeboah.

Witham created the first chance of the game inside just five minutes when a long throw into the area troubled the Tilbury defence. The hosts had a couple bites of the cherry, causing pinball inside the box before the ball fell to Rian McLean who, on the swivel, fired a shot which hammered against the woodwork.

The 20th minute saw The Dockers construct their first meaningful attempt at the Witham Town goal. A beautiful defence-splitting pass by Chris Millar released Alex Clark through on goal. The winger shifted past his man and from a difficult angle tried to cannon his strike into the roof of the net but was denied by just the crossbar.

The visitors got forward once more when Donovan recycled play back out wide following a corner. Clark was the man out wide and after beating his man he whipped in a cross to the back post where Luke Reeve rose well but couldn't direct his header on target.

Then, on the stroke of half-time, Clark held his run to perfection and was played through, but keeper Rhys Madden was out quick. The chance looked to be gone until Madden collected the ball outside of his penalty area leading to him being shown the red card and Witham being put down to 10 men.

Liam Whipps was the man who took the responsibility of standing in between the sticks.

After the break, it didn't take long before the visitors took the lead, as Koby Yeboah sent in a cross which made its way to Clark. He had his back to goal, but the winger pinned his defender and spun him with ease to make space for the shot on his left foot, which he drilled into the far corner and past the make-shift keeper.

Witham were determined though and fought hard to find an equaliser, and that almost came their way when Luke Ige collected the ball just inside the Tilbury half. Ige was given a lot of space to advance before he unleashed a rocket of a strike that narrowly swerved wide of the top corner.

The home side had another opportunity to level the scoring late on when play was spread to Ramiah Mills on the left-hand side. Mills battled well and got away from his man to work around the edge of the penalty area where he found time to shoot, but his effort which was intended for the top right corner, flew high and wide.

Tilbury managed to get forward straight after this attack when a long ball forward found the feet of Clark once again. Clark exploded past his man and beyond the Witham Town line of defence, advancing into the area, until Whipps stopped him in his tracks as he smothered the ball well.

As the final whistle blew at the Simarco Stadium, Tilbury celebrations echoed around the ground and all eyes turned to Great Wakering Rovers vs Grays Athletic. Coggeshall had already lost 2-0 to the hand of Wroxham, while Great Wakering were holding on to try see out a 1-1 draw. Thatv was until the 99th minute, when Callum Watts' strike put Grays ahead to give them the win and to help Tilbury in the relegation fight.

Results meant that Dockers leapfrogged both Coggeshall and Great Wakering to climb back out of the bottom two and to retain their place sitting 17th in the table and two points ahead of the automatic drop zone.