Thurlow Nunn First Division South, Tuesday November 12th
I stayed very local this evening as I walked across the park to see Southend Manor & Rayleigh Town do battle in a rearranged league fixture (it should have taken place last week but because of Rayleigh's participation in the County Cup to took precedent, this game was delayed a week).
The hosts came into this one off a very good performance at Coggeshall Town at the weekend, they lead 1-0 when the game was abandoned in the 88th minute due to a serious injury, but despite this they had showed that against a play off chasing side on their own ground, they could certainly mix it with them, and they welcomed a similar outfit in Rayleigh Town who after a good start to the season had dropped off in the league and had slipped down to ninth.
To be fair to the visitors though since their last win in the league a month ago at Basildon Town, they had only played two league games due to cup exploits, which they had done very well in, but those two league outings both ended in defeat without scoring, so they knew that to get back to winning ways this evening was essential to keep their themselves up with the play off sides.
Manor themselves were down in 12th spot, this after they had started the season well, a 5-3 home win over Newbury Forest was their last win, that was a month ago, the three completed games since have seen two narrow defeats and a draw, add to that the abandoned game too and their is definitely some progress lately as they look to try and turn their season back around again.
A tight and competitive game was expected, this being a local derby, and the opening twenty five minutes were certainly that, but in the 25th minute Manor got themselves ahead and it was a total disaster for visiting keeper Henry Noakes who failed to hold onto a cross into the near post, the ball slipped through his grasp and ended up going just over the line, not a moment he will want to remember in a hurry that's for sure.
Manor though were dealt a blow minutes later as after the visitors had turned a ball just wide of the target, the home keeper went down injured and spent a several minutes receiving treatment, and although he did eventually manage to stand up and lip from the field, he would not be able to continue, and with Manor having no sub keeper in the bench, one of the outfielders had to go in goal, which was not ideal.
Whether this affected the hosts for a time after who knows, but Rayleigh were to net two goals late on in the first half to go in ahead at the break, they levelled in the 41st minute after Lewis Risk's header was too powerful for the stand in keeper to keep out, and then seven minutes into added on time Leo Clark ran onto a lovely pass from Jimmy Dalton before lofting over the keeper and into the net.
Could Manor fight back? Well, it was the visitors who looked more likely to add a third for a time, one long range effort smashed back off the upright, but Manor were not without their chances too, and Town keeper Noakes made up for his first half error by making some decent stops to prevent the hosts from levelling.
Rayleigh saw a late effort come off the crossbar, but the final action saw Manor up in arms when a poor pass back towards keeper Noakes saw the hosts nip in and try and go round the keeper, but it ended with the attacker being felled, and an eventual free kick be given as it was outside the box despite some protests from the hosts who also wanted Noakes punished for his foul, no punishment though and the resultant free kick poor.
Town did manage to hold on to take battling win though, and a win that takes them up to sixth and level on points with fifth placed AS London, who occupy that final play off spot, and with a game in hand too, Manor, well they remain in 12th but can take a lot of positives from the contest too which was well contested throughout.
Full time Southend Manor 1 Rayleigh Town 2
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