Thurrock just lose out to League Leaders

Thurrock, still nursing some 15 injuries, narrowly lost out to one of the League leaders in Camberley on Saturday.

Oakfield was resplendent as the hosts kicked off on a bright Autumn day at this picturesque venue.

The early exchanges saw a bright opening from the home team, for whom the versatile Alex Jones was making his landmark 100th appearance.

Jake Barrand put in some magnificent left -footed clearances before the restored Tom Pool exploded into action. After a couple of forays into the Camberley half, Thurrock had the first opportunity to open the scoring but Barrand was just off target with a long range penalty.

The visitors would open the scoring halfway through the first half when from a set-piece move, their giant winger ran in from 30 metres after some neat interplay between 3 of his team mate. The conversion from out wide was successful.

Thurrocks ill discipline continued and Ryan Wilkins was given a yellow card on the half hour mark, following numerous team warnings for Ts.

Camberley continued to pile the pressure on for the remainder of the half but couldn't break through a stubborn and well organised Ts defence with the score stayed at 0-7 going into the break.

Camberley soon stretched their lead to 10 points shortly after the break after another penalty against Ts.

Thurrock then started to make inroads of their own. First to make an impression was Jake Bedding, who refreshed from an early season break, started to display his old guile and sparkle! A couple of scintillating, side-stepping breaks saw Thurrock drive deep into the opposition half and with slightly quicker support, both would have brought deserved scores.

Ts started to get a bit of dominance up front, demonstrated by winning a scrum against the head. This eventually led to Ts first score. Shortly after the scrum, Ts got a penalty of their own. Following a kick to touch, a simple lineout led to Chris Shorter scoring his 3rd league try of the season following a solid driving maul from the Oakfield forwards. Barrand was successful with the extras to bring Ts within 3 points of the visitors.

The next 10 minutes belonged to Camberley however. A number of line breaks were thwarted by some magnificent tackling by stand in fullback, Niall Clifford. Unfortunately, more ill discipline from Ts led to a 2nd yellow card, this time for Kiwi, Dylan Fearon. Camberley took full advantage adding a second try which was converted to extend their lead.

Thurrock came storming back again and scored through "Man of the Match", Clifford following more good work from the forwards. However, Barrand was this time wide with the conversion.

In truth the match petered out at this stage with the home side failing to get any real traction or momentum in order to influence either the outcome or the referee. The Thurrock "faithful"went home contemplating the cost of yet again "snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory."

Thurrock are back on the road this week as they travel for their first ever visit to Belsize Park. Kick off is at the earlier time of 2pm. Ts will be looking to build on their impressive performances against the top 2 sides in the last 2 weeks and know, with more players returning from injury & holidays, the squad is getting stronger with every game.