Erith Town 7-1 East Grinstead Town – MATCH REPORT

A 7 Star performance against East Grinstead gets the Dockers back to winning ways.
Words by Fred Havercan  |  Photos by Anil Rai

After recent results not going the Dockers way of late, we needed a real boost in our survival hopes against bottom of the league. The boys started with a sense of optimism with a goal inside the first 90 seconds, from James Dyer. Dyer received the ball on the right hand side, from a short corner by Bertie Valler, Dyer took the ball inside and cut onto his left foot, and superbly whipped a ball into the top left hand corner.

After the early goal, Erith didn’t stop pushing for more as they knew East Grinstead were there for the taking, the front three of Deven Reid-Solanki, James Dyer and Harry Taylor were proving to be a handful for the away side with chances coming thick and fast.

On the 13th minute mark, Dyer doubled his tally and doubled the lead for the Dockers. He was played the ball again down the right hand side, he took on his opposite number cutting onto his left and unleashed a left footed shot, hard and low this time, into the back of the net.

Just before the half hour mark, we did have our third goal through Deven Reid-Solanki, completely unmarked down the left flank where he found most of his joy during the match, drove towards the goal and placed his shot into the near post scoring his first goal for the Dockers.

Erith Town weren’t letting up at all and made it 4, with a goal for captain Harry Taylor. A long throw-in from the left hand side by AJ Dythe, was flicked on goalwards by Taylor, who saw his header hit the back of the net. The skippers first goal for the Dockers since returning from injury

Half time: Erith Town 4-0 East Grinstead

After a very one sided half, Erith wanted to carry on the pressure and did so by dictating the play well in midfield and keeping the ball extremely well and limiting East Grinstead to very little chances at our goal.

With the game seeing the longest spell without a goal, midfielder Jedd Hobbs decided to change that. A cross in from the right hand side was initially dealt with but fell to Hobbs on the edge of the box who smashed it home, leaving the keeper no chance and adding a fifth goal for Erith Town.

The Dockers kept up the momentum throughout, as James Dyer raced down the wing looking for his third of the match, but he saw his shot blocked off of the line, which fell to Richie Atkins who got his name on the scoresheet making it 6 for Erith on the afternoon.

East Grinstead were able to get a consolation goal from the spot sending Harrison Firth the wrong way. But that didn’t dappen the Erith spirit as three minutes from time, Elliot Wenham scored a header at the back post after a lovely cross was put in from the left hand side making it 7-1!

An excellent victory for the Dockers, putting us 3 points outside the bottom 4.

#Up The Dockers!

Full time: Erith Town 7-1 East Grinstead
Player of the Match: James Dyer
Attendance: 174