Tilbury 4 Soham Town Rangers 2

A VASTLY improved Soham side were unlucky not to come away with a point in their clash at Tilbury on Tuesday.

Andy Furnell’s men twice came from behind to peg back promotion-chasing Tilbury and struck the woodwork on two occasions before the Essex side sealed it late on.

The defeat comes just three days after the Greens upset the odds to beat playoff-hopefuls Grays 3-2 at Julius Martin Lane, moving them onto 27 points and up into 18th place.

Soham’s start to the match was a poor one and they slipped behind with only six minutes played after a lofted free-kick was nodded home by Alex Read.

The home side produced a series of excellent chances in the opening 20 minutes but proved wasteful in front of goal and Soham managed to weather the storm without further damage.

After 25 minutes, the visitors found themselves back in the game when defender Simon Flanz popped up unmarked at the back post to bundle over the line from close range.

Just five minutes later and boss Furnell was unlucky not to hand Soham the lead as his sweetly-struck volley cannoned off the post.

To compound Soham’s misfortune, Tilbury moved back into the lead 10 minutes short of half-time, Tom Webb latching on to a decent through ball to net.

Soham were not ready to lie down and were back level less than a minute after the restart as Dubi Ogbonna capitalised on confusion in the home defence to nod home from 10 yards.

The Greens kicked on from their equaliser and Michael Simpson brought a super save form home keeper James Marrable with a header.

Against the run of play, Read capitalised on a handling error from Soham keeper Lea Jordan to put the home side back in front on the hour mark.

Soham fought hard to get back into the game, and were left flabbergasted again in the 87th minute after Ogbonna struck the post.

The points were sealed two minutes later when Tilbury’s Read completed his hat-trick.