Basildon Utd 2 v 2 Grays Athletic

Grays Ath made the short trip to Basildon Utd on Tuesday and managed to put their band of travelling supporters through the ringer for the full, extremely cold, 90 minutes – with the game seemingly lost, rescuing a point and then nearly taking all three.
The first half of the game was entirely forgettable. Grays had by far the lion’s share of the possession but failed to produce any meaningful attempt on goal. Damani Hunter was the one bright spark for the Blues, giving Basildon full-back Sam Dickens a fearful time. Twice, he crossed the ball low through the home penalty area but there was no-one on hand to apply the finishing touch. Generally, the Blues’ defence was untroubled. Out wide, Michael Salako made territory on a couple of occasions, but Danny Sambridge had little to do. That said, home keeper George Marsh was almost as unoccupied, although he made one smart save, when Aron Gordon set up Hunter, whose low shot was palmed clear.

Half time: Basildon 0 v 0 Grays Athletic

The early exchanges of the second half did equally little to warm the crowd, whose perseverance was commendable. Grays continued to have the majority of the possession but too often they resorted to the long ball which the Basildon defence dealt with comfortably. They were guilty of being too slow to get the shot away and to little effect.
For all their lack of possession, Basildon looked more purposeful when they did have the ball. And Grays were made to pay for their profligacy after 70 minutes when a long clearance caused panic in the visitors defence and Salako was allowed to nick the ball, take it round Sambridge and score into the empty net from a tight angle. And it got worse for Blues a few minutes later when German Petrov was allowed to rise unchallenged to head home from a corner for a scarcely believable 2-0 lead.
Somehow, the situation they found themselves in suddenly spurred Grays to change gear – and how ! Manager, Lewis Dark, had emptied the bench in an attempt to make some meaningful difference. But no-one could have predicted the final ten minutes.
On 85 minutes, Mitch Hahn found a perfect cross and Roman Campbell leapt to head home from 12 yards – probably Blues first meaningful attempt on goal all evening. And then with the clock just past the 90 minutes, A long clearance from Sambridge was headed on by Lewis Clark and the ball fell to Courtney Homans who drilled the ball through the crowded penalty box to draw the game level at 2-2.
Grays suddenly had their tails up and throwing everything forward, including Sambridge going up to join the attack from a free kick. And one final cross into the box found Callum Leahy, whose header cannoned back off the crossbar.
Was this two points lost in a game Grays should have won, or a point gained recovering from two goals down? We’ll only know come the end of the season.
Final score: Basildon 2 v 2 Grays Athletic
Grays Athletic: Sambridge, Homans, Joynes, R.Winn (Agyakwa,73), L.Clark, Leahy, Gordon, Bantick (Watts, 73), Hahn, Campbell, Hunter (Olukolu, 58)
Subs not used: Griek, Osei-Bobie