Jordan Parsons reports on recently signed Ricky Freeman’s late goal to see Hornchurch beat rivals Tilbury.
Despite a scrappy affair confounded by the poor weather conditions Hornchurch’s recently signed forward nicked a last minute winner to give them the win, 0-1.
Freeman joined the Urchins from fellow Ryman North rivals Phoenix Sports, after previously scoring five goals against Hornchurch in the space of three days.
The first half was non eventful with both teams confined to the midfield. Neither side looked like they wanted to win with sloppy passing and no strikes on target for the whole 45 minutes.
After a team talk both sides came out in the second half with some much needed enthusiasm. Tilbury lead the charge, when Nathan Cooper conceded a free kick outside of the area. The free-kick floated into the goalmouth from the left wing, and Cooper made amends with a defensive header over his own crossbar.
Two minutes later Hornchurch’s new signing, Kieron St Aimie, flicked a long ball out of defence and found the fantastic run of George Purcell with pin point accuracy. As Tilbury’s keeper, Clarke Bogard rushed out Purcell lobbed the ball over his head from just inside the Tilbury half. The ball seemed to spend an eternity in the air before it drifted agonizingly wide of the post.
The Urchins finally began to settle into the game and were exerting their dominance in midfield and defence, only lacking where it counted, in the final third.
Eventually the pressure paid off and Hornchurch managed to find a way through the Tilbury defence when Freeman broke clear after a fantastic free kick was floated into the box from another new signing, Tambeson Eyong. Freeman reacted first and hit a sweet volley which flew past Bogard and straight into the top right corner.
Hornchurch currently sit third in the Ryman League, North Division and face Wroxham at home on Saturday 20th February.
TILBURY 0 HORNCHURCH 1
Tilbury FC – Bogard – Webb (Pooley 82) – Cook – Danny Smith – Nightingill – Game © – Elsom (Mead 67) – Carlile – Richmond – Cundle – Kurt Smith
Subs – Jaggs – Hanlon
AFC Hornchurch – Mott – Chouman – Styles © – May (Dove 84) – Cooper – Goodacre – Eyong – Collis – St Aimie (Freeman 72) – Purcell – Bdntley
Subs – Knight – Thompson
Officials – R Kendall with A Loe and J Killen
Goals – Freeman 73
Bookings – Cooper 15 (H) – Freeman 76 (H)