Romford 1 Tilbury 2

Isthmian One North, Wednesday 29th September

Wednesday evening saw me over at Mayesbrook Park for a Isthmian One North contest between Romford and Tilbury, and the visitors saw a late Lee Noble goal hand them all three points in what was a tough battle in Barking.

Both these sides came into this contest needing some points to kick start their campaigns, the hosts had lost all three games at home whilst Tilbury had lost both their away games this season, and both were down in the lower reaches of the early league table, who could grab their first points either home or away, as something was going to give in those records just mentioned.

In a first half which lacked any sort of quality, the best moment of note saw Carlos Simeon make a superb stop to deny Tilbury's Phil Roberts, that was until Romford took the lead ten minutes before the break when good work down the right from Jesse Olukolu saw the ball find its way over to Aundre Wholas-Spencer, and the full back fired a shot at goal which was saved by Harry Girling, but onto the boot of the lurking L'heureux Menga who sent it into the net.

Tilbury claimed offside but no flag was forthcoming, so the hosts went into the break a goal to the good, were they on their way to their first league points at home?

Visitors boss Marc Harrison and assistant Liam Wallace cut very frustrated figures at the half as they were not impressed with their side up till that point, so no doubt they demanded more from their side, and despite Girling having to make a decent stop at his near post in the second period, and the hosts sending an effort over the top from a decent position, the second half belonged to Tilbury who were putting more and more pressure on the hosts backline.

But for the majority of the half it was frustration for the visitors, either with their end product or Romford's time wasting as they claimed, the hosts were desperate for their first home win so did anything they could to put their opponents off, as any side would do of course, but with twelve minutes remaining Tilbury were given the opportunity to tie it up after Lewis Smith was felled inside the box by Wholas-Spencer, and a penalty was awarded.

Smith himself stepped up and sent his penalty towards the corner, and although Simeon got a big hand on it, he could not prevent the ball from finding that corner, and now Tilbury sensed they could grab all three points from this position.

Would The Dockers second half pressure get them that winning goal then? Well with a minute of the ninety left they duly did net that winning goal, sparking wild scenes amongst players, fans and the manager Harrison, who ran to join in the celebrations, it came after a lovely move ended with Roberts firing a ball into the box and Noble getting across his marker to steer home first time, you could see how much this meant to them after what had been a rather frustrating contest in the majority.

It had not been the best game in terms of quality, but they made up for that in heart and determination, and the win for Tilbury, their first points on the road of course, sent them above their opponents and up to 14th, a point above Romford who are 17th in what is a rather congested table early on, as is normally the case.

These sides probably won't pull up any trees in this division judging on this contest, but they will be hard to beat for sure, and as for Harrison and Wallace and their Tilbury side, they would have been delighted at full time after seeing their side turn this one around, maybe that half time team talk did the trick...

Full time Romford 1 Tilbury 2