Grays Athletic 2 Forest Green Rovers 1 (Away)
Fri, September 2, 2005. Kick off: 7:30 PM
MATCH REPORT VS FOREST GREEN ROVERS (AWAY) courtesy of Ryan Goad (Thurrock Gazette)
A dramatic last-minute winner from Jamie Stuart sent Grays to the top of the Conference table on Friday night as their fairytale start to the season continued.
Exeter City's failure to beat Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday means Blues fans have had the whole week to bask in the glory of top spot and no-one can say Mark Stimson's men don't deserve it. They have taken to the new league like ducks to water and have played some scintillating football to remain unbeaten after six games.
Dennis Oli celebrated his return to the team with a predatory strike to open the scoring in the 18th minute and Grays looked in total control before an unfortunate handball from Stuart gave Paul Wanless the opportunity to equalize from the spot.
The second half was nip and tuck with chances falling at both ends before Stuart redeemed his earlier error by thumping home a marvellous header from Glenn Poole's corner.
As well as Oli's return to the team Stimson made two other chances from the side that defeated Aldershot on Bank Holiday Monday with Gary Hooper and Joe Bruce coming in for Aaron McLean and Stevland Angus.
But in front of an enthusiastic home support it was Rovers who made the early running with Wanless testing Bayes with a stinging effort from close range.
Grays soon recovered and led by their inspirational skipper Stuart Thurgood they began to boss proceedings.
Hooper hit the side netting from a Tony Battersby cross,and then fired over minutes later when Oli's shot from Poole's searching cross was blocked by Rover's keeper Ryan Clarke.
But the away fans didn't have to wait too much longer for the break-through as a minute later Oli struck.
A rehearsed corner routine saw Thurgood pull the ball back to John Nutter on the edge of the box and his shot was deflected into the path of Oli who slotted the ball past Clarke.
Blues lookded well in command when a rare error from Stuart opended the door for Rovers.
The ex-Charlton man was adjudged to have controlled the ball with a hand following Alex Meechan's knock-down in the area, enabling Paul Wanless to restore parity from the spot.
From thereon in chances came and went at both ends. Oli craftily chipped on to the roof of the net from 25 yards and Bayes earned his money with two good saves to twice deny Scott Rendell.
A floodlight failure at half-time meant the re-start was delayed by half an hour but it didn't knock either side out of their stride.
Rovers' midfielder, Scott Rogers released Meechan in the area but he dragged his shot across goal when well placed and Hooper's turn and shot went agonisingly wide at the other end.
Bayes then made another fantastic save to deny the lively Meechan, acrobatically tipping over the ex-Halifax man's shot after a Zema Abbey knock-down.
Withe the game heading for a stale-mate Blues showed all their reserves of character to put one last spell of pressure together, and that effort was rewarded when Stuart climbed over the whole Rovers defence to crash home a header in the final seconds.
Grays' Joe Bruce in an early aerial battle
Photo: tgsphoto.co.uk
Dennis Oli opened the scoring for Grays on 18 minutes
Photo: tgsphoto.co.uk
John Martin evades a tackle
Photo: tgsphoto.co.uk
John Nutter wins a header
Photo: tgsphoto.co.uk
Jamie Stuart heads the injury-time winner that put Grays on top of the Conference
Photo: tgsphoto.co.uk
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