Tilbury 2, Heybridge Swifts 1

Following defeat on the road at the hands of Brightlingsea Regent, Tilbury had to quickly pick themselves up for Tuesday (4 March's) Isthmian North visit of Heybridge Swifts and they did just that – collecting three points despite playing more than the last third of the match with ten men after Darren Phillips added the latest ito his career-long collection of red cards.

Dockers management duo of Marc Harrison and Liam Wallace made a couple of changes to the squad from the weekend, with Connor Martin, Dan Trendall and Kieran Jones all starting in a new system.

The hosts took an early lead through their top goal scorer, Alex Hernandez. The striker collected the ball on the left-hand side of the area and unleashed a powerful low drive past Callum Chafer and into the bottom right-hand corner.

And Dockers doubled their lead after half an hour as Jones finished off a fantastic team goal. The move started with Jordan Clark, who fizzed the ball into Phillips. On the half-turn, Phillips then found Dan Trendall with a brilliant flick over the defence before Trendall played a square ball to Jones, who had the easy job of converting from a yard out.

Tilbury were then denied a third on the stroke of halftime as Alfie Fry's attempt from point-blank range was somehow saved by the head of Chafer, who threw his body at the shot to keep his side in the game.

Whatever Swifts manager, Julien Dicks, said to his side during the break definitely worked as they returned for the second half with a different intensity.

Kojo Apenteng got a goal back for the visitors inside 50 minutes when Hernandez headed clear from a Heybridge corner. However, his clearance was only as far as Apenteng on the edge of the area, who struck a sweet volley into the near-side bottom corner.

Then just two minutes later, Tilbury were down to 10 men when the mercurial Phillips, who has shown a consistent tendency for moments of ill-discipline throughout a career in senior football that started as a 16-year-old with East Thurrock United, was shown a second yellow card for a late challenge on Chafer.

Momentum shifted in favour of the visitors, but some resolute defending from The Dockers allowed them to keep strong and hold on.

Tilbury's resistance was almost broken in the 83rd minute when a cross was stood up at the back post, searching for Apenteng in what looked to be a certain goal. But Macauley Joynes did brilliantly to get between the attacker and the ball to deny a goal and head clear for a corner.

it was enought to ensure Tilbury moved up to seventh in the table.

Dockers are back in action on Saturday (8 March), when they face Basildon United at The EMR Stadium.