Tilbury 1, Mildenhall Town 0

FOLLOWING a narrow defeat at the hands of title contenders Bury Town, Tilbury had a chance to close the gap to the Isthmian North play-off spots with a fixture against Mildenhall Town on Tuesday (18 March).

The hosts came into the game in sixth place with nine points separating them from Brightlingsea Regent, and Mildenhall found themselves in 16th and 10 points clear of the drop.

Dockers named an unchanged starting 11 from Saturday's defeat at Bury with the only two changes coming on the bench with Oli Spooner and Dan Trendall returning to replace Harrison Wickens and Jake Weston.

Tilbury came close to breaking the deadlock after just 12 minutes when Harrison Day and Alex Hernandez combined to cut open the defence with a quick give-and-go.

Day worked his way to the by-line and managed to clip a cross into the area toward Jordan Clark, but the midfielder could not bundle the ball over the line and Mildenhall were able to clear.

The home side did manage to find the net after 40 minutes when Alfie Fry battled well to take the ball past the defender and deliver a beautiful cross to the back post, where Macauley Joynes was waiting to turn it home. However, the linesman quickly raised his flag to rule the goal out for offside.

Following the break, Tilbury managed to work their way into another dangerous area when Day carried the ball into the penalty area from the left-hand side. His cutback made its way to Fry who was arriving on the opposite flank, but his low driven strike was somehow turned over the bar by Adam Capel.

As hope began slipping away, Tilbury were thrown a lifeline when Dan Trendall was brought down just inside the Mildenhall penalty area. Three Hall players were booked for either complaining or delaying the penalty which added to the suspense.

The clock went into stoppage time and Tilbury's top scorer, Alex Hernandez, took responsibility. Hernandez stepped up and made no mistake from the spot, netting his 21st goal of the season and earning a vital three points for his side.

Dockers are back in action on Saturday (22 March) as the club celebrates Non-League Day by welcoming Wroxham to The EMR Stadium.