On a rare Friday night outing under lights, Grays Ath finally started to rediscover some of the fight they will need to get out of their current predicament.

The evening was also the occasion on which the club paid tribute through an act of remembrance for those club players who lost their lives in the two World Wars. With representatives of our local Royal British Legion in attendance, a roll of honour was read out of our fallen players, with the Last Post and two-minutes silence impeccably observed by both teams, managers and spectators alike.

When the action started on the pitch, Grays started brightly. A long shot from Jamie Dicks and some good work by Marcus Milner, started to set the pace. Yet again though, Blues let themselves down by allowing Basildon to score against the run of play. Alejandro Machado, clearly a danger with a dead ball, fired in a free kick that found Kye Jude free at the far post and he headed back across and past Danny Sambridge for a 1-0 lead.

A couple of minutes later the same players nearly pulled off the same trick - the Blues defence really must start to learn - and they were then given a reprieve when Samir Ali had the ball in the net, from a Michael Bareck pull back, but the assistant referee, Mr Adeyemi, raised his flag for offside - it was a tight call.

For Grays, Aron Gordon was proving to be his usual industrious self. But too often there was no-one in a position to profit from his tricky approach play. On the other wing, Jordan Peart made several lung-busting runs, again though without profit.

On the half hour, there was a mad passage of play. From a Blues corner, Charlie Stimson should have done better from close range, Basildon hacked the ball away and broke quickly with menace but the Grays defence held firm. Finneran’s long ball out then found David Knight running forward but he lost the ball in the tackle. Everyone paused for breath.

The game was too often though stop-start with both sides guilty of breaking up play with niggly fouls. Referee Mr Evans, did his best to let the game flow but had to blow his whistle on too many occasions.

Half time: Grays Athletic 0 v 1 Basildon United

Whatever Mark Stimson said at half time finally seemed to pay dividends on the pitch. Blues came out firing and were level within a couple of minutes of the restart. A fine through ball from Rob Clark found Charlie Stimson running into the box between two defenders and he finished smartly past George Marsh in the Bees goal to make it 1-1.

Throughout the half, both sides showed a lot of industry but neither keeper was overworked, with defences holding tight. David Knight came closest for Grays when his shot took a deflection and hit the side netting. For Basildon, a flick header by Alex Moss from another Machado ball into the box was their best effort. Those chances aside, both sides were restricted to long shots that the keepers handled safely.

At the final whistle, a draw was probably a fair result, but the performance from Grays, against a team at the upper end of the table, definitely showed promise. Can this be turned into results ?

Final score: Grays Athletic 1 v 1 Basildon United

Grays Ath: Sambridge, Milner, Peart, Clark, Finneran, Jones, Gordon, Dicks, Stimson, Knight, Soares-Junior

Subs not used: Osei-Bobie, Thackway, Stanford-Clarke, Sery, Boxall