We rested a few players who were carrying knocks and players who had played every second of every game against a Ryman South side who are one of the major favourites for the title, managed by ex Millwall and Leyton Orient player, Gary Alexander.

We started on top, midfield powerhouse Olumide Oluwatimilehin saw his shot deflected just wide of the left hand post.

But Greenwich Borough are a club with big resources, during the summer signing former professional footballer, Charlie MacDonald, fortunately for us he wasn’t in the squad for this match. But they did have another standout player who had many chances in Mohamed Eisa. Eisa had two clear cut chances before the 20 minute mark, but Lamar Johnson denied him from close range and the second chance he fired over the bar.

Lamar Johnson soon after made a smart save again, first he came out and headed it away and seconds later after that Shoderu’s effort was struck low and hard, but Lamar got down well and held it.

One negative of the first half was that Nathaniel Gordon’s return from a hamstring injury didn’t last too long, it looked like it went again and Nathan was replaced by Alex Maitrepierre in the 29th minute.

For the Millers Michael Pindy looked very dangerous up and down the right hand side of the pitch giving the Greenwich Borough left back a few nightmares. He managed to put in a few dangerous crosses but it just wouldn’t land to any players.

The Millers took the lead on the 35th minute of the match. Michael Pindy found himself on the left hand side of the pitch, Pindy played a one-two with Olumide Oluwatimilehin dribbled past two Greenwich players and fired past the Borough keeper from 20 yards out. Aveley 1-0 Greenwich Borough.

What we needed to do was hold on till half time and make it really difficult for the Ryman South boys to get back into it. But an exquisite finish from Michael Power five minutes later levelled things up. A cross came in from the left he controlled and finished with a sublime acrobatic effort which flew into the bottom corner. Aveley 1-1 Greenwich Borough.

The visitors had a chance to go into half-time with the lead, again it was Mohamed Eisa managed to use his pace to get in through the side, but thankfully his shot was wide of the left hand post,

Half Time | Aveley 1-1 Greenwich Borough (Michael Pindy 35 - Michael Power 40)

The Millers came out of the blocks flying, long throws came into the box and back to back corners but Greenwich Borough defence stood strong to deny us a sniff at goal.

Lamar Johnson again made a good save to deny Mohamed Eisa, a cross came in from Ambela down the left hand side, and Eisa headed towards goal six yards out, but Lamar made an instinctive save to deny Greenwich from taking the lead.

In truth the Millers midfield worked so hard to keep Greenwich Borough at bay when we did try and break forward we just ran out of steam to back up Pindy, Rene and Tobon.

Ten minutes from time the deadlock was broken as Greenwich Borough took the lead, the Millers defence seemed to claim for offside, but Francisco Etame Ambela ignored the offside shout as he sprinted into the penalty area and curled it past Lamar into the bottom right hand corner. Aveley 1-2 Greenwich Borough.

We did have one last chance to equalise and send it to a penalty shootout but Michael Pindy was a whisker away from connecting to an Abs Seymour free-kick which was played into the backpost and all it needed was a touch and somehow it evaded everyone and just went passed the far post too.

Full Time | Aveley 1-2 Greenwich Borough (Michael Pindy 35 - Michael Power 40, Francisco Etame Ambela 80)

Attendance | 44

Millers XI | Lamar Johnson, Frankie Sinclair, Perry Dunn, Billy Coyne (C), Jordan Peart, Harry Gibbs (Louis Rene), Jack Edwards, Olumide Oluwatimilehin (Abs Seymour 74), Michael Pindy, Andres Losada-Tobon, Nathaniel Gordon (Alex Maitrepierre 29).

Unused Subs | Daniel McCullock, Sherwin Stanley.

Greenwich Borough XI | Ronan Forde, Nathan Paul (Louis Hart 71), Daniel Young, Joe Tennent, Lewis Clark, Amadu Waritay, Luke Miller, Emmanuel Shoderu, Jake Britnell, Michael Power (Francisco Etame Ambela 45).

Unused Subs | Ryan Fopossi, Guy-Tresor Mpungi, Charlie Busby.