Cambridge City 1, Tilbury 2
A BUMPER crowd of 1,459 attended Saturday's inaugural match at Cambridge City's new FWD-IP Community Stadium but Tilbury were in no mood to step aside and let their hosts have all the fun – producing a party-pooping away win that sustains their challenge at the top of the Isthmian North.
The first half saw few chances but it was the visitors that came close to opening the scoring when Alex Hernandez's snapshot on the edge of the area took a deflection and rolled just wide.
However, Cambridge City would take the lead through Shane Temple who emphatically fired home from six yards out following a corner that Tilbury failed to deal with.
The Dockers thought they had snatched an equaliser on the stroke of half time when Sam Carter forced the ball over the line after the keeper seemed the drop the ball into the midfielder's path. But the referee disallowed the goal for a foul on James Philp.
On the hour mark, Tilbury got forward quick and released Lindell Stewart through on goal. The winger held off the defender to get his strike away but he was unable to find the target.
The Lilywhites were straight up the other end with the, goal scorer, Temple holding his run to perfection to beat the offside trap. The forward lifted the ball over Hughes but the woodwork came to Tilbury's rescue.
The away side continued to search for the equaliser and were handed a lifeline when Kieran Jones was brought down in the penalty area by Philp. Alex Hernandez took responsibility of the spot kick and made no mistake, drilling his shot straight down the middle.
This set up what promised to be an exciting finale with both sides pushing for what would be the winning goal. Cambridge's Temple continued to cause problems down the left-hand side as he played a quick give-and-go to find space for a shot, but he pulled his effort wide of the far corner.
Tilbury made two changes to the right-hand side with Alfie Fry and Sam Bantick coming onto the pitch and they linked up perfectly with four minutes to go. Fry shifted past his man on the right wing before standing up a cross to the back post. Bantick rose well to win the header and the attempt was too much for Philp who, despite his best efforts, couldn't prevent the ball from crossing the line.
Dockers are back in action on Tuesday (3 December) when they travel to face Hendon in the Velocity Cup.
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