Matches

Match Report by Martin Candler

Grays having been behind twice showed commendable spirit and no little skill to earn a hard-fought draw against an Oxford outfit desperate to oust Dagenham from top spot in the league. The visitors got off to a flying start when in the 4th minute Carl Pettefer‘s half-cleared free-kick was knocked back into the box by Barry Quinn for Rob Duffy to react the quickest and score from an acute angle. Andy Sambrook then cleared a cross-cum-shot off the line from the marauding Eddie Ancelet before Glenn Poole responded for the Blues with a crisp drive which was saved by keeper Billy Turley who was troubled by a leg injury for most of the match.

Things seemed to be going against the homesters even further when in the 18th minute influential skipper Stuart Thurgood had to be replaced by Tom Williamson after feeling his troublesome hamstring tighten. However, Grays, well prompted from central mid-field by newcomer Ben Harding, took the game to Oxford as the visitors tried to sit on their lead. In the last few minutes of the half only desperate defensive work by first Duffy and then Quinn denied Grays an equaliser.

At the re-start, O‘Connor, a persistent threat up front, almost registered his first goal in Grays colours but his glancing header flew just wide of the post. In the 63rd minute Grays opened their account when a Poole shot from 20 yards took a deflection to leave Turley helpless. There then followed a period when rather like Oxford in the first half, the Blues defended a little too deeply and as a result encouraged the visitors on to them. In the 73rd minute Pettefer released the speedy sub Yemi Odubade who sprinted into the box and was adjudged to have been fouled by the advancing Bayes. The home custodian failed to convince the referee that he did not touch Odubade and was booked for his pains. Duffy despatched the penalty with aplomb and stupidly baited the Grays fans at the ball-court end with an over-theatrical celebration. This spot-kick was, unbelievably, Oxford‘s 11th of the season. Perhaps you can draw your own conclusions! However, it looked all over for the Blues.

This Grays team seems to have already acquired more than a little of their manager‘s passion and commitment and they saved the best till last. With sub Matt Bodkin getting some joy on the right against the veteran Rufus Brevett, Grays began to find holes in the hitherto tight Oxford rearguard. Just 10 minutes remained when Turley elected to punch a Poole free-kick and it fell to Williamson 25 yards out. The doughty little mid-fielder steadied himself and unleashed a cracking shot past the despairing Turley to save a precious point for the Blues. It was not an encounter to please the purists as both sides needed the points but Grays can take great comfort from their performance and can hopefully build on it in the games to come.

Grays Athletic: Bayes, Smith (Bodkin 55), Stuart, Cowan, Sambrook, Nicholls, Thurgood (Williamson 18), Harding, Poole, O'Connor (Turner 87), Boylan
Subs Not Used: Knowles, El Kholti

Booked: Bayes

Goalscorers: Poole 63, Williamson 81

Att: 1759

Ref: S Atwell (Nuneaton)

Fans Man of the Match: Harding

Forthcoming fixtures