An early strike from Paul Burnett after just eight minutes was cancelled out four minutes later when Leon Antoine headed the visitors level from a corner.

Despite constant pressure on the Sudbury back line, Aveley just couldn’t find their way past Fred Howe for a second time.

That was until the introduction of Petrit Elbi and Shane Oakley, who between them scored three goals in the final 11 minutes of the match to secure Aveley’s six successive win, and, temporarily at least, lift the Millers up to third in the table.

With the fog lingering in the Essex area throughout the day, the surface at Mill Field – for those that could see it – was slick and made for a lightening pace to the match as Aveley looked to extend their run of wins to six in league and cup.

Not wanting to mess with a winning formula, manager Justin Gardner only made one change to the line-up that started against Ware on Saturday, with Rashid Kamara missing out through personal reasons, being replaced by Paul Burnett, and the winger grabbed his chance with both hands as early as the eighth minute with the opening goal of the match.

Junior Dadson played the ball forward to Jordan Cox who had drifted out to the left wing. The striker then decided to go back in the opposite direction before wrapping his foot round the ball to swing in a cross, picking out Burnett perfectly on the edge of the area. Burnett took the ball down expertly on his chest before lashing in the half volley past the despairing Fred Howe to give the home side the lead.

With the early goal, it was important that Aveley looked after their lead and didn’t let Sudbury back in easily, but just four minutes after taking the lead, the game was level again from a disputed corner which appeared to have come off a Sudbury player last.

Manager, Justin Gardner, was already furious at the award of the corner, but he would have been raging when from the set piece the ball was whipped in towards to the six yard box where Leon Antoine met it to guide his header into the bottom corner to make it 1-1 after 12 minutes.

The equaliser was unfair on the home side, who had started the match well, but it certainly did not deter them from the task at hand as they went about trying to regain the lead, dominating the rest of the first half and creating three good chances to notch up their second of the game.

Dadson was first to threaten the Sudbury goal, when after 22 minutes a low cross from Junior Appiah found Billy Holland in the centre of the penalty area. With the ball stuck underneath him, the Aveley captain tried desperately to dig the ball out, but only managed to nudge the ball to Dadson who stroked a first time effort towards the bottom corner that was well saved by the toe of Howe.

With the game being played at breakneck speed, Aveley carved out a couple more chances towards the end of the half.

Dadson was involved again, when his effort from inside the box went straight at Howe. The goalkeeper though spilt the ball straight to Appiah who lashed a cross-shot harmlessly wide. And right on the half time whistle, Howe poorly punched away a corner under pressure. Jay Leader poked a toe at the bouncing ball to send it towards goal only to see it cleared off the line at the near post.

Second half, and it was as you were, with the home side continuing to dominate and create chances, with the away side looking devoid of ideas in the final third.

Five minutes after the break, Dadson wasted another good opportunity following quick passing between Burnett and Appiah, the ball was laid into the path of Dadson who on the stretch put his effort over the bar.

Cox then had a good opportunity thwarted by some excellent goalkeeping when he took a cross from Holland down on his chest on the edge of the area. The Aveley striker took the shot on the volley but Howe was alert to the danger and was off his line remarkably quickly to smother Cox’s effort and clear to safety.

The Aveley onslaught continued when, shortly before being taken off, Dadson rifled a shot from pushing 35 yards that was screaming into the top corner, only for Howe to dive to his left to tip over after 61 minutes. Moments later Danny Hopkins tried his luck from even further out but this one was saved comfortably by Howe.

The longer the match went on the more concern grew that Aveley were not going to make the most of their dominance, but two late substitutions paved the way for the Millers’ fifth league win in a row.

Petrit Elbi – fresh off scoring two against East Thurrock last week in the Ryman League Cup – was introduced for Cox in the 74th minute, and five minutes after his introduction he gave the home side the second goal that they had been craving.

A cross from the right from Appiah was won in the air by Elbi, who beat Howe to the ball, but the substitute saw his effort come off the foot of the post. Holland was in close proximity, and despite falling over he managed to claw the ball away from the Sudbury defender who was with him and prod it back to Elbi who took one touch to set himself before lashing in a half volley from six yards out to the delight of the home support inside Mill Field.

It was the least the Millers deserved after dominating the match, and it opened up the floodgates for a fruitful last 10 minutes that saw them notch up two more goals.

A speculative effort from Elbi on the turn deflected towards Oakley who had Sudbury’s Ronnie Martin for company. Oakley, though, showed strength and determination to wrestle the ball away from Martin, before firing in a low driving shot into the bottom corner to all but confirm the three points for the Millers with 81 minutes played.

With time ticking down and Aveley heading up to third in the table, Elbi added a second to put the gloss on a convincing display.

Appiah picked the ball up just inside the Sudbury half, before showing frightening pace to glide past the Sudbury left back. The Aveley winger then floated a cross towards the centre where Elbi was unmarked. The substitute took the ball down expertly on his thigh before smashing the ball in on the volley at the near post to make it a second 4-1 win in two days for the Millers.

After the match, centre back Luke Wilson said “I think we’ve got to understand that we’re not going to go out there and batter teams like we done with East Thurrock and Brentwood. We’re going to have to dig deep and win hard. The harder we battle and the more chances we’re going to get and I think tonight proved it.”

Fitness Coach, Gary Nisbet said of the performance, “I thought we started brightly. We said that they had a poor result on Saturday so we wanted to get onto them early, get an early goal and we did that. They got back into the game with a poor set-piece conceded and the game was a bit flat for a while, until the last 20-25 when we started to pick it up a little bit and I think our superior fitness has shown through there with three goals in the last 15 minutes.”

When Nisbet and Wilson were asked when they saw Aveley’s winning run coming to an end, Nisbet responded by saying “I don’t see why the run should end. We’re bound to have a poor game sooner or later, but I think we’ve had two relatively flat performances now and we’ve still won both games 4-1. There’s no reason why we still can’t go on winning.”

Wilson said “I don’t think there are teams that are going to stop us really, because we’re going to come in here, grind it out and the more games we win ugly the more chances we have of winning the league.”

Aveley: Ronnie Worster, Marcus Rose, Alfred Kamara, Jay Leader, Luke Wilson, Danny Hopkins, Junior Dadson (Shane Oakley 62’), Billy Holland (c), Jordan Cox (Petrit Elbi 74’), Paul Burnett (Ellis Sands 80’), Junior Appiah