Honours even at Rush Green as Grays draw 1-1 with Witham Town

The first chance of the game went to Witham in the 9th minute as Emeka Onwubiko found space in the Grays area to fire towards goal. George Kamurasi made a good initial save and Dave East reacted well to clear the ball before it could cross the line.

The away side didn’t have to wait much longer to take the lead however, as in the 13th minute a ball from the right wing found Lewis Godbold in space thirty yards from goal. He attacked to the edge of the area curled an inch perfect shot with the outside of his right foot off the far post and into the opposite corner of the net.

The goal seemed to wake Grays up as they pushed forward looking for an equaliser.

In the 17th minute a free kick was headed to the edge of the Witham box where Luke Marshall met the ball on the volley but his shot went inches passed the left hand post.

Two minutes later a good cross from the right by Marshall found the head of Joao Carlos. His header was on target but well saved by Jason Baker in the Witham goal.

Grays finally drew level in the 21st minute in fortuitous fashion. Joe Sweeney picked the ball up on the edge of the area and his turn and shot was heading for the right hand corner and a comfortable save for Baker before the ball hit the back of Tom Devaux and flew into the top left hand corner of the net, leaving Baker with no chance.

The final action of the first half almost saw Grays take a lead into the break. Good play down the right wing found Joe Sweeney with space to cross low to the back post where Carlos came sliding in but narrowly missed the ball for a simple tap in at the back post.

Grays pushed forward early in the second half, forcing a succession of corners, but were unable to convert any of them.

Grays made three substitutions around the hour mark, replacing Luke Marshall, Leon Lalite and Joe Sweeney with Jared Small, Jake Hall and Jeff Hammond respectively.

However, the three subs struggled to make any impact in the game with the best chance falling to Jared Small on 71 minutes as he met a cross from Danny Bunce from the left but his header went narrowly over the bar.

Witham almost took all three points away from the Rush Green stadium as a free kick in the 80th minute was tipped onto the post by Kamurasi before he got up quickly to stop the shot from the rebound to keep the score level.

Both sides failed to create any further chances and a point a piece was probably a fair result in the end.

Grays Athletic: George Kamurasi, Craig Pope, Dave East, Junior Baker, Danny Bunce, Luke Marshall (Jared Small 53), Kenny Beaney, Leon Lalite (Jake Hall 60), Joao Carlos, Jack West, Joe Sweeney (Jeff Hammond 63)

Unused Subs: Lee Flynn, Ryan Kirby