Captain Jimmy McFarlane clinched the Essex derby on Saturday yesterday with an injury time winner for Purfleet against Braintree Town.

A cracking advert for non-league football was settled in typically dramatic fashion, with the game seeming destined to finish in a 2-2. Fleet had other ideas though, with Paul Linger swinging in a late corner from where McFarlane rose unchallenged to plant a header into the net.

Before that, matters had been relatively even with both sides doing justice to their similar league positions. Purfleet took the lead after seven minutes as Cliff Akurang's overhead kick spectacularly beat Paul Catley.

No sooner had Braintree kicked off though that they found themselves level, with Nicky Simpson doing well on the right before slipping the ball past the advancing Alex O'Reilly to pull the game level.

Terry Bowes then went close for Purfleet before Catley was called into action to divert Danny Jones' long-range effort over the crossbar.

Purfleet did regain the lead on 48 minutes as Akurang bundled through to blast past Catley, although Braintree looked likely for a point twenty minutes from time as Nicky Smith's free-kick floated past a number of strikers in the box and straight into the net.

Purfleet's resilience told eventually with McFarlane's late late winner - a result that takes them to 5th in the table, their highest position of the season.