Benfleet 2 Tower Hamlets 0 - Goals from Matthew Stevens-Brown & Taylor Lawrence help hosts to yet another win as their quest for the Thurlow Nunn First Division South title & promotion to Step Five continued

Thurlow Nunn First Division South, Wednesday 20th March

It has been a while since I had made a trip over to Canvey Island for a football game, so I decided to go and watch Thurlow Nunn South league leaders Benfleet continue their quest for the title and promotion to Step Five and the Essex Senior League as they welcomed relegation threatened Tower Hamlets to Park Lane.

Now both teams needed the points for differing reasons, Benfleet currently sit top of the division and are two points clear of second placed Hutton having played six games less than them, therefore Benfleet's closest challengers were third placed Wormley Rovers who were only three points off the leaders and have only played one game more, and with Harlow Town not being able to gain promotion and with the others way behind on points and having played more games, Benfleet's eyes were solely on Wormley as said.

Fleet's form has been almost perfect since the turn of the year, ten games played nine wins and just one loss, who was that against, yep Wormley, as the chasers netted a magnificent 4-0 at Wormley Sports club, but apart from that Benfleet had netted thirty-six goals in the other nine games they had won, conceding just nine as well, meaning that 4-0 loss was very much out of character but showed just how good Wormley have been too.

Fleet were therefore expected to win this contest against a Hamlets side who sat four points above the bottom three at kick off in 14th place, although they do have a few games in hand on those below, so were hoping to pick up some more points in those games to get them away from the danger zone down at the bottom of the table.

The Mile End sides form since the turn of the year has seen them net just two wins from seven games, one draw and four defeats, one of which came against Benfleet which ended with a narrow 2-1 win for the Canvey based side, a couple of months or so ago in East London, so if that is anything to go by, maybe tonight's contest would be tighter then some had anticipated.

The most dramatic moment of the first half though wasn't anything to do with either side as it turned out, as midway through the first period referee Dwayne Uylett's calf muscle popped, meaning he was unable to continue officiating the game, and although one of the assistants, Liam Dawson, was able to take over in the middle, who was going to replace him in the assistant referee role?

Thankfully, there was a chap in the stands who used to referee in the local leagues and at the ripe old age of nearly sixty, he came on to take the assistant referee role meaning the game could continue, and ran the line in a pair of jeans, needs must as they say, and kudos to him as well as he did a pretty good job for the rest of the contest, right place and right time you could say, and as said it meant the game could continue.

Benfleet did have a couple of decent openings when Taylor Lawrence saw a curling effort from outside the box saved fairly comfortably by visiting keeper Lamar Johnson, before skipper Aaron Russell really should have scored when after a ball was squared to him by Joey Hardingham, he could only fire wide of the post, Hamlets did have their moments too, and should have scored when a ball into the six yard box was somehow poked straight at keeper Archie Cunningham.

But four minutes before the break Benfleet managed to find a breakthrough to ease their frustrations, a corner swung in with the left boot of Lawrence wasn't cleared and eventually saw Matthew Stevens-Brown blast home from close range and it meant the hosts went into the break a goal to the good and on track for another three points.

Benfleet upped the anti after the break and went close to a second goal on a few occasions, one such moment saw them screaming for a goal after they were adamant that they had forced the ball over the line from close range, however the linesman on the near side, Alistair Lloyd, disagreed and said it had not, and whilst the game remained 1-0, Hamlets were always in the contest and just like the first period did have their moments in the opponents box.

But, with just under twenty minutes to go, Benfleet found a second to pretty much seal this contest, a ball into the mixer saw keeper Johnson try and punch clear whilst under pressure, and he could only punch the ball into the air and into the path of Lawrence who was lurking to send a first time left footed volley back across goal and into the far corner, and hand the hosts breathing space finally in the match.

It proved to be enough too as the home side continued their march towards the title and promotion, they have a three point lead at the top with a game in hand over second placed Wormley Rovers as the two most likely challengers for the title are now in the top two places, whereas despite a hard working performance from Hamlets they left with nothing and remain in 15th spot, flour points above the drop zone.

Full time Benfleet 2 Tower Hamlets 0