Thurlow Nunn First Division South, Friday 12th January
I was at my second Thurlow Nunn South contest in forty eight hours and this time it was action towards the foot of the table as Basildon Town hosted May & Baker at Rookery Hill in Corringham.
The hosts were having a tough season and sat just three places and three points above the drop zone, whereas Bakers were a further two places and four points ahead of tonight's hosts and were looking to put plenty of daylight between themselves and the bottom three with a win in this one.
Bas Town were obviously looking to stop that happening and try and put more points between themselves and the bottom three ahead of the weekend fixtures, although the hosts only had two wins since early October so three points had become a rarity for them, could they put that right here?
The two had met only a month ago at Parkside and Bakers had run out a close 3-2 winners thanks to goals from Idris Aminu, Gabriel Odili & Remi Awosanya, with the Bas goals coming from Dylan Jones & Ayodele Awosika, so a tight contest was again expected based on that contest.
Now Bakers had tasted victory a lot more recently than their opponents, a 2-0 success at Park View last weekend where Aminu & Odili were again on the scoresheet, and those two were to be pivotal in this contest too, and in fact the opening goal which came in the 26th minute saw Aminu adjudged to have been felled inside the box, although the hosts were less than impressed with the award of the spot kick as they felt it was not a penalty.
Up stepped Odili though and he sent keeper Dan Blockley the wrong way to hand the visitors the advantage, it had not been the best half of football though, scrappy at best is how I described in on social media, and am not sure anyone could disagree with that.
Bas Town were struggling to create anything of note, and their frustrations with the officials got the better of one of their players who received an early second half sin bin for shouting something unruly at the assistant referee on the far side after another decision went against them, so they were down to ten men for the following ten minutes.
Bakers should have made that one man advantage count but found keeper Blockley in the way to prevent them from increasing that lead, but after they were back to full strength, the hosts did concede a second goal twenty minutes into the second period after Bakers second half pressure finally brought rewards, Odili bursting clear, and although Blockley saved his initial effort, the ball bounced back off the striker who then had the simple task of slotting into the empty net.
You kind of felt at this stage that the game was pretty much done, the hosts still had not created anything of note, and they didn't force a save from the visiting keeper until well inside the final ten minutes of the ninety, and with the clock ticking into eight minutes of added on time, the hosts headed over from point blank range, which kind of summed up their night, they also felt they should have had a penalty themselves in a late period of pressure on the Bakers goal.
Had they scored that header, they may have had a sniff at an unlikely comeback, but four minutes into stoppage time Bakers sealed the deal when substitute Abidemi Lamina was brought down inside the box and he duly picked himself up to roll the spot kick into the corner, with keeper Blockley going the wrong way, just like the first spot kick in the first period. Game, set & match to Bakers.
It had been a poor night for Bas Town and they would be the first to admit that, Bakers hadn't been a lot better themselves but they didn't need to be and did all they needed to do in this one to take another three points on the road, they seemed to want it more than the hosts who were second best to a lot of things in this game, and they remain three points above the drop zone as a result of this defeat.
Bakers have now recorded back to back wins on the road without conceding, and they have now put a huge ten points between themselves and the bottom three, so a lot of breathing space for now, and they jump up two places to 13th as well, so a good night for them indeed.
Full time Basildon Town 0 May & Baker 3
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