Burnham Ramblers 3, Tilbury 1

DOCKERS' disappointing season continued at Burnham on Tuesday when they were decisively beaten by the home side, despite enjoying much more of the attacking play.

The difference between the two Essex Senior league sides was Ramblers' more incisive play. They spent much of the match fighting a rearguard action but when they broke they always carried venom, particularly through Tim O'Reilly who netted twice.

Tilbury introduced new striker Michael Shelly up front alongside leading scorer Paul Cobb and also had newcomer Danny Scopes on the bench.

And in the early stages it looked likely that the new strike pairing would have plenty to go at as Dockers pushed their hosts into a fairly continuous defensive mode.

However, Ramblers weathered the storm and when they counter attacked on 22 minutes it was with some guile and style. Jerry Lyons was the architect, getting the ball forward to Danny Jones who produced a neat back-heel to open the door for O'Reilly to score from close range.

There was a touch of controversy about Ramblers' second goal soon after. Scorer Jones was undeniably in an offside position when he received the ball before producing a convincing finish past James Cook and the irate Dockers bench went apoplectic with rage at the referee, who nevertheless had got the decision right as the ball to Jones came from a wayward pass by Dockers' own Carl Fannon.

There was time before the break for Keith Wilson to strike the bar to give Dockers some hope, but that drained away 11 minutes after the resumption when a punt down the middle saw Jones win a flick on against Lee Hattam and O'Reilly latched onto it to produce another clinical finish.

Tilbury introduced their subs in a bid to chase the game and Tom Dosser, who has proved highly effective coming off the bench recently, again produced the goods with a 79th minute finish after good work by Cobb and Shelly but it was too little, too late in front of goal and Dockers were left to make their way back to Chadfields wondering how they had dominated so much but ended up with so little.

Having slipped to sixth in the table, Dockers travel in hope of better things for another league match on Saturday, this time against fifth-placed Concord Rangers.