Isthmian Division North

Hashtag United 0 v 2 Tilbury

TILBURY bounced back from Saturday’s defeat at Isthmian North table-topping Gorleston to pull off their best win of the season on Tuesday night (20 October), beating another of the division’s high flyers on their own patch.

Tilbury made a couple of changes to the starting 11 from the weekend, with Rasheed Salau and Ronnie Winn returning to action.

Tilbury took an early and unexpected lead in the 28th minute through Issa Sidibe, after Salau battled to win the ball in the area, allowing the opportunity to fall to Sidibe, who fired past Joe Whitney.

Tags came close to levelling the game before halftime, but Ellis Devereux’s looping effort bounced off the line, against the post and into the arms of a relieved Billy Lawlor.

After the break, Hashtag continued to threaten and were once again denied by the woodwork, when Joe Debell’s thunderous strike from distance rattled the crossbar.

The remainder of the second half was one-way traffic, but the hosts were unable to break down the Tilbury resistance. On the hour mark, Bilal Sayoud’s low cross from the right-hand side found Praise Ogbebor in the area. His effort was brilliantly saved by Lawlor, before the rebound was blocked and cleared by Luke Reeve and Joe Elliott.

Soon after, Hashtag shot-stopper Joe Whitney was called to action. Soumen Nandi collected the ball just outside the area, before clipping a perfect cross to Jake Brocklebank. However, he was somehow denied by an incredible reflex save from Whitney.

In the dying moments, the home side continued to push for an equaliser but to no avail, and having committed men forward, Tilbury broke and sealed the win through Nandi, who took his time to sit the keeper down and rifle his strike into the roof of the net.

The win was Tilbury’s 1300th league victory since becoming a “senior” ranked club in 1927 and lifted them to eleventh.

The Dockers are back in action on Saturday 24 October when they host Brightlingsea Regent in a 3pm kick-off at Chadfields.