Grays Athletic 0-2 Mountnessing

The visitors tonight were our good friends Essex Olympian side Mountnessing.

With a handful of first team regulars in attendance Mark Holloway fielded a side of mostly reserves and triallists for the first half under the watchful stewardship of first team manager Hakan Hayrettin .

The opening period saw an organised Mountnessing capitalising on the home side's lack of familiarity and understanding to dominate possession and press the Blues defence. The ball was repeatedly given away as Grays' searched for some composure and chemistry but it was no surprise when Mount's went ahead after 15 minutes.

A good ball down the left capitalised on the strikers pace who was able to get clear of the back line and strike goalward. Greg Edghill made a good stop but another Mountnessing player muscled his way onto the rebound to finish from close range.

Grays started to settle and get organised and took control of the game. Mounts were restricted to hacking the ball long but at times their excellent counter-attacking play threatened to increase the scoreline.

Dan Daley hit the bar from the corner but apart from that Grays offered very little in the final third with the best attacking moves coming from full backs Marc Graves and Luke Foster.

HT 0-1

Seven changes were made at the break, with an entirely different - vastly experienced - back four coming into the action.

Grays dominated from the start of the half but were still struggling to get a grip of the visitors' counter-attacking. Gaffer John Field has clearly put some work into this aspect of their play and it's good to watch if not great to be on the receiving end.

Mounts really should have had one or two more but a good save from Greg Edghill and a wasteful striker made sure the scoreline remained intact but it was a bizarre squence of howlers that allowed the visitors to double their lead on the hour mark.

Matt Harris moved to cut out a forward pass but it sliced backwards to Stephen Owusu he promptly fell over the ball and as he tried to clear it could only scuff it goalwards. An oncoming striker didn't get the best contact on it but the solid hands of Greg Edghill appeared to spring a leak as the ball bounced out of his grasp and rolled over the line.

More changes were made and the home side surged forward time and again, hitting the woodwork several times and missing two sitters. Jay Nash blazed wide when put clean through and Liam Jones blasted over an open goal from a few yards out.

It wasn't to be and so the spoils went to Mountnessing on the night, and we wish them well for the forthcoming season.

FT 0-2

Full squad:

Daniel Smith
Danny Bunce
Grant Cooper
Jared Small
Richard Oxby

Jay Nash
Stephen Owusu
Antony Ryan
Dogan Agac
Liam Sawford
Vedat

Greg Edghill
Luke Foster
Dan Daley
Charlie Brien
Marc Graves
Matt Harris
Tim Conroy
Alun Jones
Joe Smallwood
Liam Jones

unused substitutes:

Duncan Whitfield
Ridwaan Shaikh
Jermaine Bell
Rohan Francis
Tarell Jackson-Gordon