Grays made hard work of extending their lead at the top of the Conference South against basement club St Albans on Saturday.
537 spectators watched a match riddles with stoppages, dubious free kick appeals and some very hard tackles and run by a referee, Mr Beadle, who looked more than happy to live up to the antics of his show business namesake.
Grays came close on 20 minutes when an excellent shot by Dean Brennan was tipped over the bar by Paul Bastock. On the half hour Steve West just failed to connect properly with Stuart Thurgood’s long range free-kick.
Seconds before the half time whistle Blues broke the deadlock after Saints’ Ben Martin was cautioned for a crunching tackle of Leroy Griffiths. Bastock fisted away the resulting free-kick, but the ball was nodded back in by Hooper allowing Matthews to use his head to complete the strike.
Early in the second half Blues boss Mark Stimson took off Thurgood and have Hornchurch player John Martin his debut. However it wasn’t before Thurgood had collected his fifth booking of the season and he now faces a ban.
While never the better team St Albans were certainly giving Blues a good run for their money and Grays keeper Ashley Bayes was put under pressure to make several fine saves.
However the match was put beyond the visitors on 78 minutes when Brennan got on the end of a fluent move to prod the ball home. In the closing minutes Brennan came close to adding another goal to cap a fine individual performance but his excellent chip found the crossbar rather than the back of the net.
Thanks to the Thurrock Gazette for the report
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