AVELEY FC are probably drinking in the last chance saloon as they play host to Hampton and Richmond Borough in the Vanarama National League South today (Saturday, 1 March).

Successive defeats against Weston-super-Mare, Weymouth and St Albans City have seen Millers return to the bottom of the table, a position they occupied for two weeks in November.

Today's visitors won the corresponding fixture at the Beveree Stadium in November 2-0.

With 12 matches to go and the cap to safety seven points it's not yet a totally lost cause for Millers, but it remains a very tough ask.

Razzaq Coleman De-Graft

And they will have to do it without the assistance of winger Razzaq Coleman De-Graft, who has left the club after 57 appearances.

He didn't feature in the midweek defeat at St Albans and the club have issued a statement saying: "After initially agreeing to stay, Raz has now decided to leave. We would like to thank Raz for all his efforts in an Aveley shirt."

In their last Isthmian North outing on Wednesday, 19 February, Tilbury ended a run of disappointing results with a 3-2 win at Sporting Bengal United.

Any impetus has possibly been dissipated by the postponement of last week's scheduled match against Mildenhall, but it might be equally argued that ten days' rest will be beneficial for today's trip to fellow promotion contenders Brightlingsea Regent.

Dockers won the home fixture at Chadfields 2-1 in October – a victory that put them on top of the table - and today's match is an opportunity to make up ground on a side three places and six points ahead, in fifth spot - though Tilbury do have a match in hand.

Grays Athletic's hopes of featuring in the promotion challenge disappeared with a poor run of form and they go into today's home clash with third-placed Brentwood Town nearer the drop zone than the play-off position.

They are ten points clear of the bottom two, with matches in hand so they should be safe and that may give them the freedom to have a real go at their high-flying visitors, and perhaps will be inspired by their performance at Brentwood in November when they recorded an outstanding 5-1 win.

Grays face a busy March, with eight matches ahead of them after a number of postponed fixtures.

East Thurrock Community FC's scheduled home Essex and Suffolk Border League clash with White Notley has been called off because of internal issues at the mid Essex village club.