Met move up to 4th with away win

My Thanks to club chairman Des Flanders for picking up pen & paper & taking the notes for a match report from this game.

On a dank dark night in Essex the Met turned up at Aveley to play their much postponed fixture against Grays but once the lights had been turned on – Joy of Joys – the pitch looked absolutely immaculate; flat and with a good covering of grass. The pitch was, of course, wet but so are they all at the moment.

Congratulations and thanks to Craig Johnson for a fantastic effort to get the game on.

Good also to see Matt Pattison back fit and in the team especially in light of the news of Ryan James’ pending move to Margate.

As expected Grays started strongly with 4 very tall players able to crowd the penalty area and in the 5th minute a free header was just wide. That brought the Met to life as for the next 25 minutes they took the game to Grays with Patto and Brad Hudson-Odoi forcing good saves from Grays keeper Conor Gough on a number of occasions. The game was 35 minutes in before Grays caused the Met any further problems with a period of sustained pressure during which Craig King was called into action to save at the feet of an onrushing forward, immediately followed by Brad forcing Gough into yet another save which he parried out of reach of nearby Met players. The Met were entitled to feel hard done by to go in goalless at half time.

The second half started in a scrappy way and it was not until the 60th minute that the crowd were roused when Brad cut inside for the umpteenth time to have another strong right foot shot parried away by Gough. Only 4 minutes later Met undid the Grays defensive shield with a shot on target from Joe Turner being diverted in by Patto giving Gough no chance.
Grays response was immediate, bringing about their best period of play as they sought an equaliser with King needing to make a smart save on 70 minutes and continuing his fine form since joining the club. On 73 minutes Jamie Lovegrove replaced Patto and two minutes later Elliot Taylor was fortunate to escape a yellow card as he dragged a Grays player down following a desperate tackle after a mistake.

Grays continued to press hard as Jim reshaped his team with Aldo coming on for Charlie Collins with about 5 minutes left. Then in the dying seconds of the game came an amazing escape for the Met as Jay Lovett blocked a point blank shot which looked certain to give Grays their much sought equalizer. Not to be - but on balance it was a deserved victory for the Met.

Final score Grays 0 Met 1

Team: 1 Craig King 2 Will Salmon 3 Jay Lovett 4 Billy Crook 5 Steve Sutherland 6 Nikki Ahamed 7 Charlie Collins 8 Elliott Taylor 9 Joe Turner 10 Matt Pattison 11 Bradley Hudson-Odoi
Subs 12 James Aldred (replaced 7 - 89 mins) 14 Ricardo Joseph 15 Jamie Lovegrove (replaced 10 - 73 mins) 16 Dean Bown 17 Stuart Searle

Man of the Match Will Salmon