Grays Athletic 3, Felixstowe & Walton United 2

GRAYS inflicted a first league defeat of the season on visitors Felixstowe & Walton, leapfrogging their opponents into second place in the table.

It was a game full of incident, with neither side giving any quarter, both looking to maintain their strong starts to the season.

Blues started the game quickly, with Anointed Chukwu having a shot blocked in just the second minute. But the home fans didn't have to wait long as Macaulay Joynes found Aron Gordon on the left wing. His cross evaded Sam Bantick, which fooled Leon Ottley-Gooch, unfortunately turning the ball into his own net. And it should have been two-nil a few minutes later when Bantick was put through by Callum Watts and his shot beat visiting custodian Callum Robinson but grazed the outside of the post.

Felixstowe steadily worked their way into the game, enjoying long periods of possession. They worked the ball well, finding their men readily but coming up against a resolute Grays defence marshalled by Geoff Okonkwo and George Winn, in the absence of captain Lewis Clark. Just after the quarter hour, the visitors thought they had equalised from a Billy Holland header which was cleared off the line by Macaulay Joynes, who had a fine first half.

The pressure told in the 25th minute when a mix-up in the Blues defence led to the ball falling to Joshua Hitter outside the box and he struck a perfect shot past Danny Sambridge to make it 1-1.

Just after the half hour, Bantick found himself clean through again with only Robinson to beat, but again the woodwork intervened. But on 38 minutes and somewhat against the run of play, Chukwu controlled the ball well on the right edge of the box. Robinson flapped at his cross, leaving Bantick with a simple close-range header for a 2-1 half time lead.

The second half mirrored the first. Blues were content to sit quite deep, soaking up the Seasiders' attacks. On 55 minutes, the visitors had a loud shout for a penalty turned down; referee Daryl David unimpressed by their claims for handball against Okonkwo. However, both sets of supports were becomingly increasingly unimpressed by his officiating – while the game was a feisty one, the ten yellow cards handed out did not reflect the manner of the encounter overall.

Felixstowe were putting increasing pressure on the Blues goal but they paid the price for not making the possession count. On a relatively rare foray up the pitch, Malaki Toussaint controlled the ball well inside the box and his cross teed up Aron Gordon whose shot was well saved by Robinson, but Chukwu was on hand to fire home for a 3-1 lead.

The game's final point of contention came on 74 minutes when Gordon broke down the left wing and keeper Robinson came well out of his area to challenge the forward and in doing so clearly handled the ball. However, Mr David chose only to show a yellow card, leaving Blues players bemused.

To their great credit, Felixstowe continued to try to find a way through the Grays defence and just before the 90 minute mark, only a fine block by Courteney Homans saved the day. And soon after, a George Clark shot caused Sambridge to save smartly. Then deep into a puzzling eight minutes of injury time, a Felixstowe corner was tapped home at the far post by Billy Holland, making it 3-2, setting up a grandstand finish.

Josh Osude could have wrapped things up for Blues, when his run and close-range shot was smothered by Robinson and there was still time for Sambridge to be called to make one final save to seal the win.

So, an excellent three points against quality opposition who tested the Blues in all areas of the field. This perfectly sets up next Saturday's table-topping awayday in Suffolk at leaders Lowestoft, which will be another real test for Lewis Dark's men.