Soham Town Rangers 1 Tilbury 1

The Greens came into the game against their fourth placed visitors having won for the first time this season at Redbridge last weekend, and made one change as Jamie Barker returned to the side, replacing James Motley who dropped to the bench.

The first half was a fairly even, end to end affair, although it was the hosts that created the better of the goal mouth action. Both sides had early opportunities as Paxman placed wide from the edge of the area, whilst Bircham made a low one handed save to deny Aiken up the other end of the pitch. Mason and Robinson both tried their luck with headers, before the later had a shot turned over the bar by Marrable, with Davis driving wide from the resultant corner. The visitors thought they had a strong call for a penalty in the twentieth minute thinking Aiken had been tripped in the area by Bromwich, but the officials allowed play to continue as Jack Carlile was cautioned for his appeals. Shortly after, Llewellyn climbed highest to head wide from Waters’ diagonal pass. With ten minutes remaining, Robinson played in Paxman, but Marrable was again called upon pushing the attacker’s strike round the post, with Barker also heading behind from the resultant corner. Mason then curled a shot from the edge of the area against the roof of the bar while Barker dipped over in injury time.
The second half began in the same manner as Francis received Matthews’ cross field ball, but Andrews managed to get back and clear off the line eight minutes after the restart. However the score was finally broken in the 55th minute when Mason held off a defender to flick on Davis’ right sided long throw into the path of Michael Simpson, with the Soham Captain rolling the ball past the keeper and over the line from an acute angle. The hosts were now getting on top and enjoying the better of the play as Mason again curled another shot wide of the post. Both sides made changes with less than twenty minutes remaining as Small, McCabe, Barnes and Smith all came on in separate substitutions, whilst Auger and Matthews firing over with rising shots. With only two minutes left, following good build up play around the area, McCabe delivered the ball back into the path of Paxman, but his low shot was again turned round the post by Marrable, with Simpson coming close with a header from the corner. With the game coming to a close, Tilbury started throwing more forward, including sending keeper Marrable up for set-pieces, and it was from one of these that the visitors equalised in the fifth minute of three added on minutes when Aaron Matthews received a right sided ball to volley through a crowded Soham penalty and past Bircham with the last kick of the game to give his side a share of the points.

Soham Town Rangers
D. Bircham, S. Davis, B. Harradine, M. Bromwich, J. Barker, N. Andrews, R. Auger, M. Simpson, R. Mason, M. Robinson (J. McCabe 74), J. Paxman
Unused: J. Asensi, J. Sessions, S. Bennour, J. Motley

Tilbury
J. Marrable, D. Smith, A. Waters (B. Barnes 75), B. Crooks, J. Nightingill, G. Henty, M. Llewellyn (J. Smith 79), J. Carlile (J. Small 72), E, Aiken, D. Francis, A. Matthews
Unused: C. Mead, M. Edwards

Score: (0-0) 1-1

Goals
STRFC: M. Simpson (55)
TFC: A. Matthews (90+5)

Yellow Cards
STRFC: J. Paxman (Dissent 89)
TFC: J. Carlile (Dissent 17), A. Waters (Foul 57)

Attendance: 117

Match Pictures