Thurrock 5, Sutton United 3

THURROCK'S rich vein of form continued on Saturday when they outclassed Sutton United at Ship Lane and moved into the Conference South play-off positions.

A brace apiece from Richard Goddard and Garry Cross, plus a fine individual effort from Mark Janney, ensured Fleet sealed a comfortable victory that would have been comprehensive had the referee not awarded the visitors two contentious penalties.

Since they lost three league games on the spin in September, Colin McBride's men have won seven of their last 10 in the league and are beginning to show the sort of form that will see them challenging for promotion come May.

On his side's fine win McBride said: "It was pleasing, we played some good stuff out there and if it wasn't for two woeful penalty decisions it would have been a lot more convincing.

"The goals are beginning to be shared around the side which is always good and we're coming along nicely."

With Lee Hodges pulling the strings Fleet dominated the opening exchanges and Steve Harper went close when he found space in the box and forced U's keeper, Phil Wilson, into a good block with his legs.

Hodges himself had two decent efforts from distance before United broke at the other end and nicked a goal against the run of play.

Michael Gordon rolled the ball into the feet of lively striker, Eddie Akuamoah, who span Mark Goodfellow expertly before rifling his shot into the bottom corner.

Buoyed by the goal Sutton, who had won on their previous three visits to Ship Lane, enjoyed a spell of pressure of their own and Matt Gray was unfortunate not to double the visitors' lead when his crisp shot forced a good diving save out of Glenn Knight.

The rebound fell fortuitously at the feet of Akuamoah but he could only find the side netting from an acute angle.

But Sutton's pressure came to an abrupt end when Janney produced a bit of magic to haul Fleet back on level terms.

The ex-Dagenham and Redbridge man picked the ball up deep in the Sutton half and ran at his opponents, skipping past two challenges before coolly slotting past Wilson.

Goddard then saw his towering header repelled by a combination of keeper and post and Hodges found the other post seconds later when his curling shot beat Wilson all ends up.

Harper forced Wilson into another fine save shortly after the re-start when he latched on to a long clearance and fired at goal from a tight angle.

But, with a porous back line in front of him, the U's keeper was waging a one-man rearguard action and it wasn't long before that defence was broken again. Hodges played a sublime through ball into Cross, whose first touch was excellent and with his second he poked the ball past the hapless Wilson.

But Wilson was soon denying Fleet again minutes later when Hodges' penalty, awarded after Harper had been felled by John Scarborough, was beaten away by the U's custodian.

But the home fans didn't have to wait too much longer for a third, which arrived after a sweet passing move.

The omnipresent Hodges played a cute give and go with Harper on the right touch line before rolling the ball across goal towards Goddard who stabbed home from close range.

Harper had a goal disallowed when he rounded off yet another slick passing move before Cross doubled his tally with a volley from the edge of the box that took a deflection and wrong-footed the unfortunate Wilson.

With five minutes to go referee, Adrian Sannerude, made the first of two dreadful decisions when he penalised Jimmy McFarlane for holding on to his opponent's shirt in the box and Gray rolled the spot kick home.

Fleet hit back almost immediately when Knight's long clearance found Goddard who lobbed Wilson to make it five before Mr Sannerude again intervened and awarded Sutton another penalty for handball in the box.

In what turned out to be the last kick of the game, Gray smashed his penalty into exactly the same corner to salvage some lost pride for Sutton.