Grays Athletic 0, Walthamstow 4

GRAYS served up the very opposite of festive cheer for their fans at the start of the Christmas fixtures programme with an insipid performance against a lively Walthamstow side containing a number of former Blues players, who thoroughly deserved to return to east London with the three points.

The Blues faithful must really be wondering whether this is the same side that put an excellent Brentwood to the sword just a few weeks ago.

The conditions were difficult, with a heavy pitch and a strong blustery wind blowing but the visitors adapted quicker, recognising that this was no occasion for fancy football.

And it was no surprise when they took the lead after 20 minutes. Blues lost the ball in midfield and Walthamstow made progress down the right. Callum Ibe found himself in space inside the penalty area but selflessly squared to Bilal Sayoud who finished readily past keeper, Luis Shamshoun playing his first home game.

Grays did then look to get back into things with their best period of the game.

Samir Ali crossed but just out of reach of Danny Gould and then Blues had a series of shots from inside and outside the area but Walthamstow defence held firm, putting bodies on the line to repel all borders.

Matas Skarna then let fly a rocket shot from 25 yards that just flew over the crossbar. But in truth that was as good as it got for Grays all afternoon.

And just before the interval, it got worse for Blues when they were caught napping by a quick break from Walthamstow and Tayo Oyebola was left with a simple tap-in to make it 2-0.

The second half was principally one of game management for the visitors, knowing they had the points in the bag if they played things out carefully.

Louie Remi was probably Blues' brightest spark and he could have pulled one back on the hour when his diving header, from Elliott Sartorius' cross, went just wide. Grays' only other chance came courtesy of Stow's full-back, Dwight Pascal, who brought a smart save out of his own keeper with a back-header!

On 70 minutes, it was 3-0 when ex-Blue Jordan Peart cut his way through some poor Grays defending and shot past Shamshoum from an angle. And another past player of this parish, Callum Ibe applied the finishing touch just before the close when he was given the freedom of the penalty area to make it 4-0.

Even Alejandro Machado's fine long-range shot, in injury time, was well dealt with by Finn Rushton in the visitors' goal.

So, very much a day to forget for Blues fans, with the squad needing to find some form quickly, with a run of games coming up over the festive break.

Manager Darren Manning, kept the players out on the pitch for a long time after the final whistle conducting a serious post-match inquest. and he was damning of his players' performance, describing it as 'horrendous' in his post match interview.

A Boxing Day outing against old rivals Tilbury could be just what is needed to shake off the cobwebs.