Great Wakering Rovers 0, Tilbury 1

Following a 3-1 defeat at home to Felixstowe and Walton, Tilbury took the trip to Shoeburyness to face Great Wakering Rovers.

Despite the result on Saturday, the Dockers showcased a very promising first half performance including a goal within 5 minutes for new signing James Ewington and some well worked chances that they were unable to capitalise on.

Only one change was made to the starting XI as Luke Reeve was replaced by Jordan Aghatise.

The game commenced with a moment of madness from Chris Millar who hit a halfway line strike instantly from kick off after catching Harry Fairs off his line. His effort soared over the keeper but crashed against the crossbar and out of play.

The Dockers started the livelier of the two sides and had a chance after 13 minutes through Michael-Percil who skipped past a challenge on the edge of the box, but his shot didn't find the target.

The hosts began to grow into the game though, and some good play saw the ball fall to Reece Stringer with just the keeper to beat.

However, Christian North was out quick to close down the angle and pull off a brilliant save. In stoppage time of the first-half, Tilbury had a chance to take a lead going into the break when Millar threaded a pass to Clark on the left-hand side. Clarky's low cross was met by the arriving Donovan, but the midfielder couldn't keep his first-time effort down and his strike was sent over the crossbar.

On the stroke of half-time, Great Wakering's Adedoja was played through on goal and as he prepared to pull the trigger, Connor Martin pulled off a perfectly timed last-ditch tackle to ensure the scoreline stayed level.

Great Wakering were the sharpest following the break and even had an effort fired wide after Stringer's flat corner to the front post made its way to Adedoja. In the 66th minute, Alex Clark had a left footed effort cleared off the line, before the home side got the ball up the other end of the pitch and familiar face, David Knight, saw a volleyed effort blazed just wide of the post.

With time running out and three points being the main focus for the Dockers, Tilbury continued to find space in the wide areas and in the 86th minute, Michael-Percil played a quick one-two with Millar which opened up a lot of space for the winger to try his luck from the edge of the box. However, the keeper got down well and made a simple save.

In the dying minutes of normal time, Clark showed good footwork on the right-wing before driving inside and finding space to shift the ball to his left foot, but once again Harry Fairs denied the visitors of a possible winner.

The away side would finally break the Rovers resistance in stoppage time when Chris Millar played a ball down the line for Alex Clark to chase. Clark did brilliantly to keep the ball in play and after bursting past his man an outside of the boot effort flew into the near side top corner after wrong-footing the goalkeeper who was expecting a cross.

Tilbury could not switch off though as Great Wakering took one last roll of the dice with a free kick launched into the box. The hosts were able to get a head on the delivery and the effort looped over North and the Dockers were saved only by the frame of the goal. That was all the action at Burroughs Park and Tilbury had taken all three points and a clean sheet from their Tuesday trip to Shoeburyness.

Not the prettiest of performances, but a hard-earned win saw Tilbury climb back to 15th in the Isthmian North table and a step further away from the dreaded bottom four.