Jamie Slabber scored his first goals in four months to help a rejuvenated Grays side thrash relegation-haunted Tamworth at the Recreation Ground and move back into the Conference play-off positions.
Fresh from their thrilling 4-2 FA Trophy quarter final victory over Dagenham and Redbridge five days’ earlier, Blues recaptured the sort of form that saw them go 13 league games unbeaten at the start of the season though, it has to be said, they faced little resistance from a woeful Tamworth side.
A goal apiece from Aaron McLean, Stuart Thurgood and Michael Kightly plus a brace from Slabber – his first goals since November 5 – punished the Lambs who had centre back Dave Bampton sent off in the first half for a couple of rash challenges on McLean.
Blues boss, Mark Stimson, was understandably delighted with his sides’ performance and hopes that his players have re-discovered their form at the right time as the business end of the season approaches.
And Stimson revealed that a couple of chats with his side may be the reason his side look to be getting back on track.
He said: “We’ve had a couple of chats about where we’ve been going wrong and where we want to go as a club and we all agreed that whatever we want to achieve at this club we want to get it by getting the ball down and playing.
”I don’t like making excuses but our pitch doesn’t help our game. We try to get the ball down and pass it and at the moment the pitch doesn’t help. When we go away from home the pitches are better, we can get the ball down and play football, but our pitch will get there, it takes time.
Whatever Stimson and his assistant Scott Barrett did say to the players has certainly worked because after the thrilling win over Dagenham and Redbridge, the Tamworth victory was another stellar display.
”I’m very happy”, Stimson said afterwards. “We started off like we finished the Dagenham game on Tuesday night. We were positive, we played with energy and caused Tamworth lots of problems.
”I was a bit concerned that because if was such a big game and it was a local derby, the Dagenham game would have taken a bit out of the boys. We had a chat about the FA Trophy and all the boys want to be involved and they all know they have to be performing and I though all the players, including the subs were excellent today.”
And the Grays boss has special words for Slabber which hasn’t always been the case over the past couple of months.
”It was great to see Slabber running around showing a lot of hunger and desire,” he said. “He has phenomenal ability. He sometimes looks like he isn’t putting everything in but that’s just the way he plays. I thought he was outstanding today and if it wasn’t for a great save from their keeper he would have had a hat-trick.”
Stimson made one not entirely unexpected change, from the side that beat Dagenham the previous Tuesday with Nicky Eyre coming back to replace Ashley Bayes in goal.
Bayes has been looking short of confidence at the moment and Stimson says Eyre will now be given his chance to stake his claim for the big games that are looming on the horizon.
Eyre was a spectator for much of the game and watched from afar as his team-mates began the game brimming with confidence with front-runners, Dennis Oli and McLean, putting their opponents on the back foot from the outset.
And it was Oli who created the first goal when he chased what appeared to be a lost cause into the corner and out-foxed Bampton with a wonderful bit of close control before the Lambs’ centre half cynically brought him down on the edge of the box.
It was a wonder that Bampton did not receive a booking for that tackle though it didn’t take him long to collect two genuine yellow cards.
If Bampton’s punishment was belated his side’s was immediate as from the ensuing free kick Grays took the lead. Thurgood’s centre was swung in dangerously to the near post and after McLean’s first effort had been blocked he tried again and found the bottom corner.
Lambs’ centre back Matt Redmile then almost scored a comical own-goal when his back pass failed to pick out keeper Sean Bowles and was heading into the net until Bowles recovered and hacked clear.
The visitors were let off again from the following corner when Glenn Poole’s delivery was headed in by Jamie Stuart though referee Graham Horwood saw a debateable push by the ex-Charlton man on the hapless Bampton.
Blues did grab a second just short of the half hour mark when a lightening fast counter-attack, instigated by Cameron Mawer, culminated in Oli setting up Thurgood whose fantastic cross-cum-shot ended up wedged in the top corner.
Bampton then got his marching orders after picking up two yellow cards in less than 10 minutes for clattering into McLean who was forced to come off with an injured ankle after the second challenge.
Not that his absence was felt too keenly by his team-mates as first John Nutter with a glancing header and then Oli, with a toe-poke from inside the box, went close to extending Blues’ advantage.
The speedy Kightly then flew past Dominic Roma and Carl Heggs before dragging his shot wide as the home side piled on the pressure.
In the end if was McLean’s replacement, Slabber who netted the third in the second minute of first-half injury time when he worked a cute give and go with Nutter before sweeping the ball home underneath Bowles.
The closest Tamworth came to scoring in a one-sided half was when debutant Tommy Johnson tried to lob Nicky Eyre from 40 yards but didn’t get enough air on his effort to trouble the ex-Tottenham youngster.
The second half was a like a defence versus attack training session for the home side as the visitors did little more than concentrate on damage limitation.
It threatened to be a landslide win for Blues when Slabber collects his second 10 minutes into the half after Eyre’s huge kick was horribly misjudged by Redmile and the 21 year-old lobbed Bowles but Grays squandered some decent chances to run up a cricket score.
Slabber was denied a hat-trick when Bowles made a good stop from close range, after more good work from Thurgood and Slabber turned provider when he played in Oli but Bowles again was quick off his line to keep the deficit to just four.
But, with the Grays fans heading for the exit gates, the fifth did come and it was worth waiting for.
Kightly picked the ball up on the right and ran across the pitch and found Poole on the left on the left wing before charging into the box. Poole took a couple of touches and sent in a terrific cross towards Kightly who stooped to expertly head past Bowles and wrap up Grays’ biggest win since they thrashed Scarborough 5-0 on October 15.
The one disappointing aspect of the whole day was the non-appearance of ex-Arsenal and England legend Paul Merson who was expected to turn out for the Lambs but who instead warmed the bench for 90 minutes.
In fact his most strenuous activity of the afternoon was signing autographs for the legions of fans who I’m sure would have preferred him to have been gracing the Rec instead.
Report by Ryan Goad
Thanks to the Thurrock Gazette for the match report
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