Tilbury 1 Heybridge Swifts 0

Heybridge Swifts’ gruelling schedule continued with a 1-0 defeat at Chadfields, against hosts Tilbury down by the River Thames tonight.

The two teams were actually locked together on 31 points before kick-off, although the Dockers had played 10 games more than the Swifts, due to the latter’s long runs in the FA Cup and FA Trophy.

And the Swifts’ hectic fixture list is beginning to have an effect – Jody Brown’s men have not won since a 2-0 win over Bowers & Pitsea on New Year’s Day, and are stuck in the lower half of the table, with 27 games still to play.

For Tilbury, managed by former Colchester United defender Joe Keith, this was their first win of 2018, a run of four straight defeats having ended with a 3-3 draw at Norwich United last weekend.

The match was decided early on by defender Thomas Cooney’s unfortunate own goal.

The Swifts did have a couple of early chances, Kresnic Krasniqi peppering the target with two shots. But it was Tilbury who took the lead, Cooney turning a cross into his own net while under pressure from home striker Dwade James on six minutes.

The Dockers had a golden chance to double their lead just two minutes later, only for Charlie Little to screw his shot wide.

In truth, the Swifts struggled to get going, and often relied too much on the long ball forward.

Juan Luque skied a shot over the bar and out of the ground on the half-hour mark, but the Swifts should really have been on level terms just a minute later.

Left-back Thomas Cooney’s optimistic 25-yarder was spilled by home keeper Clarke Bogard, only for Tim Monsheju to slice the rebound wide of the near post with the goal beckoning.

The visitors forced the pace in the second period, but could not fashion an equaliser, and Krasniqi was sent off in injury time to rub salt into their wounds.

Squads

TILBURY: Bogard, Salami, Odeulsi, McWee (sub Smith, 60), Bendit, Turpin, Little, Carlile, James (Dance, 73), Aromolaran (Adebayo, 83), Anderson.

HEYBRIDGE: Sambridge, Ramon, Cooney, Dark (sub Gardner, 64), Conway, Miller, Krasniqi, Morgan, Smith (sub Godbold, 64), Monsheju (sub Callander, 78), Luque.