Last Minute Change of Plans

Tilbury FC v AFC Sudbury - Saturday 26th February

Another week of Non-League football, another week of adverse weather conditions.  We intended to head off to see Aveley host Tooting & Mitcham, and were excited about the prospect of being in the presence of former Southend United right back Mark Beard, who is now in charge of the visiting team.

Alas, that was not to be, as pretty soon games in the area started to tumble to the weather, and before long ours was one of them.  Undeterred we switched our attention to other fixtures that were going ahead, but what with the late postponements we knew we wouldn't have much time to get to another ground, so set our sights on the nearest home team on offer, Tilbury FC.  According to the website there was to be a late pitch inspection but that the teams were expecting to play.  Well, if they expected to play then we expected to be there to watch them, so we hurriedly set off to hunt down their ground.  We were made to work hard for our prize, with there being no road signs or any indication as to where the ground was.  In fact we may still have been looking for it now if it wasn't for the discovery of the AFC Sudbury team coach poking its head out of a side road.

With minutes to spare before kick off we finally entered through the turn-stiles.  There didn't seem to be any match programmes on sale, just an old man selling soggy raffle tickets, so steering clear of him we ventured over to find a cup of tea. 

I think it's fair to say that the home of Tilbury FC is not very pleasing on the eye.  Both ends of the pitch had huge metal fencing behind them in an attempt to block the ball from leaving the stadium, forcing fans to peer through them if they want to stand behind the goals.  They would honestly be better off investing in ball boys.  The rest of the ground was harsh concrete and iron fencing, although to one side of the pitch they did boast an intriguing stand placed above the changing rooms.  We couldn't turn down the opportunity to view a non-league game from above pitch level so made our way round to check it out, wandering past a huge pile of sand in doing so, that had been used on the pitch to try and get it fit for purpose.



Less than appealing view from behind the goal



The rain was still falling heavily as the players emerged from below us, and we took our seats as they set themselves to kick off.  Immediately we discovered that the view from our perch was fantastic, as long as you avoid sitting in any of the seats.  With so many pillars and floodlight posts in front of us, in order to see the game we'd have to stand.

And what a game it was.  In truth, the surface wasn't really playable.  It was a mudbath.  Still, the players took to it, with Sudbury coming out of the blocks faster than their hosts.  After missing a few half chances though, and perhaps being scared off by a never ending supply of Tilbury slide tackles, the game soon evened out.  All of a sudden it was Tilbury who were doing most of the running and their reward came after 15 minutes when a cross from the left was neatly controlled and stroked home by Chas Liddiard.  At least i think that was his name, the teamsheet i stole it from was a little difficult to decipher. 

This goal sent the small contingency of hardcore Tilbury fans into raptures.  They were singing in unison throughout the first half anyway, and this early breakthrough only served to fuel their delightful chants further.  They also seemed to be singing a collection of original terrace songs but we couldn't quite make out the seemingly witty lyrics from where we were, in part due to the distance they were from us but perhaps over-ridingly because they had been drinking a lot (we could smell the alcohol on their breaths after the game as we filtered out through the exit with them) causing them to slur some of their words.

Capturing our first sending off of the tour

There was one other major chance in a frantic first half and it came barely minutes after the opening goal.  Sudbury immediately looked to get back into the game and managed to force a corner, which resulted in them thumping the bar from range, and somehow having the follow up cleared off the line to prevent the equaliser. 

Tilbury thought they'd grabbed a two goal lead just before half time, only for it to be ruled out for offside, so the teams went into the break with just the one goal to show for their efforts.  We nipped over to grab a snack and almost missed the beginning of the second half due to the queue at the tea bar, as the poor old woman there had no help whatsover and was struggling to keep up.  Perhaps thats why her tea tasted so bad, and because of this we opted for canned drinks second time around.

Fortunately for the players, and more importantly for an ever degrading playing surface, the rain eased up and things brightened in the second half.  With the conditions settled, Sudbury started to show their class as the stronger team, and grabbed a quick equaliser only a few minutes after the restart.  Cue the all too familiar scuffle with the 'keeper as he tries to keep hold of the ball whilst the striker wants to get on with the game.  Things were heating up all over the pitch in fact, none more so than when Tilbury midfielder Ben Bradbury went crunching into left-back Daniel Swain, ending his oppositions game, shortly before the referee ended Bradbury's, with what was our first red-card since being on tour.  Bradbury seemed to disagree and took his anger out on the linesman, so much so that he had to be held back from trying to attack him.  Checking after the game the Tilbury website generously overlooked this incident to protect their player.

In fact their website claimed that Tilbury were the better side over 90 minutes and claimed they were hard done by with the result, but as far as we were concerned that couldn't be further from the truth.  Sudbury grabbed the win they deserved, breaking in numbers despite yet another poor decision by a referee who did his best to get everything wrong, and stroking the ball home from just inside the area with 15 minutes to go.  Their looked as though there could be a bagful of goals in the dying minutes as Tilbury came forward leaving numerous gaps at the back, but Sudbury couldn't capitalise further.

Car Park: Very small and no spaces, so had to find a space on the road
Ticket: £8

Programme: N/A

Score: 1-2

Attendance: ???