Essex Olympian League Premier Division, Tuesday 26th April
Tuesday evening saw me over at Rayleigh Sports & Social Club and saw a George Vile free kick on the half hour prove enough for Rayleigh Town to defeat Sungate to keep their title hopes alive.
It was another important for the home side as they looked to close the gap to the top two, Ongar Town and Basildon Town, who both have sixty points from twenty six games (Ongar are top courtesy of a much better goal difference), Rayleigh knew a win would close the gap to just three points having played the same number of games and a better goal difference than the top two as well.
Sungate themselves were embarking on their seventh game this month, it has been a busy schedule for the newly crowned Essex Premier Cup winners as they had had many games to catch up on as the season drew to a close, but a win for the visitors here would see them close the gap to fifth placed Kelvedon Hatch to six points and still with five games in hand (Hatch have now finished their season too).
Saying all of this though you could have been forgiven for thinking Sungate were just trying to get through their games now having won a major prize already this season now, and apart from an early chance to the visitors it was the hosts who took control of the match with the visitors more than casual on many occasions, especially playing out from the back and giving away possession on countless occasions too.
Despite all of Rayleigh's dominance and openings though they only had one goal to show for it at the break, although it wasn't a bad strike to be honest, as Vile struck a left footed free kick from outside the box, see it take a deflection, and although Sungate keeper Stefan Lamacq got a hand to it and push it onto the bar, it thumped the underside of it and ended up in the net with half an hour gone.
Sungate had rode their luck somewhat, just like in their last game at Hutton, and in that game they had come back to nick a draw, could they do the same here, well early in the second period they so nearly stunned their opponents but Jake Willis saw his close range effort brilliantly saved by Mark Brown, it was a rare save for the hosts stopper in this contest but a very good one at that, and it was a warning to the hosts how fragile their lead was, despite all their attacking play and missed chances.
You felt Rayleigh needed a second to put this game to bed, and they had more than enough chances to kill the game off, and the visitors even tried to give them a helping hand twenty minutes into the second period when Lee Samways was sin binned for ten minutes after saying something out of turn to the assistant on the near side, but they found Sungate keeper Lamacq equal to every attempt that came his way. Harry Talbot and Charlie Seaden were causing havoc down the Sungate right, but the final ball also was lacking when they got into a decent position, and at 1-0 Sungate were always in the game, despite the hosts having a lot of the attacking play.
As the light began to fade and the time run down towards the final few minutes Rayleigh did have to do some defending as Sungate tried to deny them the win, but anything that Sungate pumped into their box was repelled, and after a few minutes the final whistle came and Rayleigh had netted a very important win to keep themselves in the hunt for the title.
Full time Rayleigh Town 1 Sungate 0
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