Starting Line-ups
Grays
Nicky Eyre
Zeljko Popovic
Steve Robinson
John Nutter
Joe Bruce
Dean Brennan
Mitchell Cole
Stuart Thurgood
Vil Powell
Gary Hooper
Leroy Griffiths

GWR
James Marrable
John Heffer
Woanham
Beal
Brendan Walshe
Scopes
Harrison
Danny Pitts
Mike Shelly
Dan Trenkle
Harris

Substitutes
Grays
Carl Emberson
Martin Carthy
Gavin Heeroo
Dennis Oli
Tony Battersby

GWR
Badu
Ewert
Sam Lake
Dosser

Substitutions
Dennis Oli -> Gary Hooper (48)
Gavin Heeroo -> Stuart Thurgood (58)
Tony Battersby -> Leroy Griffiths (73)
Sam Lake - Danny Pitts (75)

Even without Freddy Eastwood, this FA Trophy clash between goal mongering Grays and struggling Great Wakering Rovers was always going to be a one-sided affair.

In the end the goals came thick and fast but the score sheet was blank at half time, despite considerable pressure from the high-flying Nationwide Conference South team.

Grays, under Mark Stimson, are tilting for the top slot in the league, but it took then an age to break down the defences of their rivals on Saturday, despite having a bagful of chances.

Rovers, languishing at the unglamorous end of the Southern League Division One, denied the home club for the first 45 when chances for Grays, came from their usual suspects, 27-year-old Leroy Griffiths and Vill Powell.

Mitchell Cole and England Under-23 squad member Stuart Thurgood had cracks too. But nobody could outfox former East Thurrock keeper James Marrable.

Aided by stalwart defender John Heffer and defender Brendan Walshe, this trio thwarted an increasingly frustrated Blues attack whose main problem was elaboration.

Blues boss Mark Stimson repeated the maxim, Keep It Simple, Stupid during the break and they did.

Just 40 seconds in, Griffiths scored the first of his four when he bundled the ball in from a free kick. Grays newcomer Dennis Oli on for limping Gary Hooper added centre-park presence and pace and could have had one of his own. But it was crowd pleasing Griffiths who nabbed the second just six minutes later. His header from an Oli cross was first parried by Marrable, but he stabbed in the rebound.

Somehow Rovers engineered against the run of play a strike of their own in the 56th minute. Mike Shelly caught Blues napping and pulled one back with a right foot strike which had a whiff of offside about it.

But two more from Griffiths in the space of two minutes an edge of the area punt in the 68th and a 70th minute close range net-ruffler stunned the villagers.

And when big Tony Battersby a dead ringer for Arnie's Terminator found space in the 78th it was all over. Vill Powell's considerable contribution to the match was rounded off with a deft and inch-perfect header into Battersby's path allowing the striker to let loose a diagonal scorcher, as it squeezed inside the post.

Grays could have scored three, four or even five more. But Rovers never let their heads drop and should be proud of their gritty defensive display. Rovers own sharpshooter Dan Trenkle, like the rest of the team, spent most of the match parrying the Grays attack. And more good news for Grays is the fact that Bridge Road looks like a football ground again....rather than a building site.