A bad night at the office

Grays Athletic chose their visit to Redbridge on Thursday evening to put in what was probably their poorest performance of the season, suffering one of their heaviest defeats in the process. Their cause was not helped by the decision-making of referee Mr O’Meara, who in your writer’s own opinion failed to recognise that players, fans and bench only get angry with officials when they feel they are not getting a fair hearing. For example, if the concession of a penalty at one end is a yellow card offence, how it is not so at the other end? Refereeing at this level is a thankless task, and criticism is not meted out in these pages lightly.

The early part of the game had a very “end of term” feeling to it, with neither side able to exert any great control. Grays had the first chance of the night, when Aron Gordon chased down a long clearance out of defence and home keeper Connor Wheatley hesitated but just managed to beat the Grays man to the ball.

The Motormen slowly worked their way into the game. Tendai Quamina was tricky out wide and Joseph Elliott’s exocet-like long throw-ins were always a danger.

The whole game turned in the 23rd minute. Alejandro Machado, who had already been given a very soft yellow card by Mr O’Meara, tussled with ex-Blue Lewis Clark for the ball in the area. He hooked the clearance away but caught Clark high up with his boot in doing so. The referee instantly awarded both the penalty and gave Machado his marching orders with a second yellow. Jack Chawner dispatched the spot kick for a 1-0 lead.

Whilst Grays were re-organising their defence, Jayden Silcott-Brown, twice broke through and missed very presentable chances to extend the lead. But the home side did not have to wait long, Aaron Clarke hesitated when he should have just dealt with the clearance and Quamina stole in from behind him and doubled the lead, 2-0.

Silcott-Brown then made it a hat-trick of misses and Ayo Odukoya added to the tally of chances gone begging before Chawner again took things into his own hands - turning on the edge of the box and striking an unstoppable piledriver of a shot off a post into the net for a 3-0 scoreline.

Blues were all over the place and lucky onto be down by three. But they were then handed an improbable lifeline back into the game, with five minutes left of the half, when Aron Gordon was felled in the box by Mekael Williams for a clear penalty - but according to Mr O’Meara, no card. Charlie Stimson stood up to convert the chance to reduce the arrears to 3-1.

Soon after Gianni Ashley was seemingly also bundled over in the box but the referee decided it was neither a foul nor a dive.

Half time: Redbridge 3 v 1 Grays Athletic

Blues fans feared the worst for the second half. In truth, throughout the game, Redbridge ran harder, chased down faster and wanted the ball more than Blues - especially disappointing given that the home side had only played on Tuesday evening.

Williams had a shot saved by Anthony Page and Lewis Clark headed against a post before Soumen Nandi drilled a shot through a crowd of players and into the net to make it 4-1 with more than half an hour still on the clock.

Clark again failed to get on the scoresheet against his old team when he put a free header wide of the post.

Grays continued to create very little and home keeper, Wheatley, was a spectator for much of the evening. Stimson ran his proverbial socks off chasing lost causes up front but there was little support behind him to create anything positive. Fortunately for the scoreline, the revamped Grays back line had got themselves more organised and were able to repel further chances, but the damage was long done.

So a poor night all round for Blues, but the chance to make amends comes quickly on Saturday, at home to Stowmarket.

Final score: Redbridge 4 v 1 Grays Athletic

Grays Ath: Page, Clarke (Matyar, 67), Ashley, Machado, Humphrey (Wilson, 73), Milner, Skarna, Sartorius, Stimson, Crook (Perry, 68), Gordon

Subs not used: Finneran, Maccari