Thurrock v Braintree

On wet and cold Sunday Morning, it was going to be difficult to get the boys fired up for this match against the league 2 team. And although the boys went through the pre-match warm up well, once the game started we found ourselves under early pressure which was soon turned into points from the Braintree backs. The Thurrock players just needed to stay focused and get into the match but again shortly after the restart, we found ourselves under our own posts again as Braintree had scored in a similar fashion to the first try but Braintree were unable to convert either of the tries. Thurrock started to show signs of what we knew they're capable of and shortly afterwards, started to build some good pressure on the visitors with also some good possession with the ball with the forwards and backs linking up well, we were able to get our first points on the score board by Joeseph Kelly crashing through the Braintree defence in the corner which he was unable to convert (but he wasn't finished yet!!).

Half time score 5-10 to Braintree

Thurrock started off the second half with the same intent as the first but both teams weren't prepared to give in and so for the first 10 minutes of the second half both sides had some good spells of possession but the T's defense was strong and kept Braintree away from their try line. Harry Tomlinson found some good space and took the ball with a great run right up deep into the visitors half which the coaches and spectators were sure he was going to score but a Braintree player had other ideas and with an extremely brave tackle took H down, however this set the stall up for what was going to be an onslaught of attack by our lads. The Thurrock forwards continued the momentum the H had made and forced the visitors into their corner where JK struck again but again no conversion, 10 all.
Now the game was swinging Thurrocks way and we continued to pile more pressure onto the visitors right on there try line and with several attempts to go through the middle of the Braintree pack we changed tact and went wide and with a couple of passes put Harry Crellin in under the posts which JK easily slotted. 17-10. The forth and final Thurrock Try again can from good pressure from our pack on their try line and with some good strength and acrobatics Emmanuel Philips was able to somehow twist himself over the Braintree line to get the forth try but unfortunately we couldn't convert this one.

Final score 22-10. Great resilience and determination once again by our boys.
Man of the match was Harry White who continued to lead the forwards and keep their momentum going in the right direction. And also Joeseph kelly needs a special mention as he clearly had a massive impact on the score line. Well done boys.