Two goals from Jasper Mather and a strike each from debutant Bailey Smith and Doug Tuck ensured Bognor came away from Essex with a morale-boosting triumph and, more importantly, three valuable points.
Smith, who signed for the Nyewood Lane outfit on loan from Worthing yesterday, wasted little time making an impact and he put the visitors 1-0 up on 13 minutes.
Mather made it 2-0 five minutes later with a free header in the box and for once, the Rocks had made a goal-scoring start to the encounter as opposed to shipping an early goal or two.
Tuck found the net on 65 minutes with a superb effort to make to 3-0 and Mather wrapped things up with a fourth in the 92nd minute.
The win lifts Bognor off the foot of the table with Bowers & Pitsea, who were hammered 6-0 at home to Wingate & Finchley, dropping to rock-bottom position. The side managed by Michael Birmingham and Jamie Howell still have a long, hard battle ahead and are currently still 13 points from safety. But confidence will be high after this statement win.
Both managers issued a rallying call to their players this week to grab three points and launch a fight back as a springboard to maintain their status in the top flight until it is mathematically impossible to do so.
And the motivational encouragement did the job – and how! Both bosses were understandably ecstatic with the display and the win and now they switch their attention to the home game next Saturday against Bowers & Pitsea – a team also fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table.
Birmingham, speaking to James Powers from Rocks Radio, said the result came from an almost perfect performance, adding: “Cray Wanderers was almost the perfect away performance (Rocks drew 1-1 two weeks ago after conceding in the 94th minute) up until the last minute but this, yeah, the lads were great. It wasn’t the easiest pitch to play on — to be honest the training session on Tuesday when we trained out the back (of Nyewood Lane) was pretty much like this, and me and Jamie were laughing and joking, because it was quite good, saying we hope Canvey is like this.
“Keeping a clean sheet is massive because if you do that you are guaranteed a point aren’t you? The back four were magnificent, and so was Ryan (Hall) but all the boys in front of them put in a proper shift and we restricted Canvey.
Howell put the victory down to being clinical in front of goal after observing that in previous matches this had definitely not been the case.
He added: “Today we took our chances. Recently we have had good opportunities and not been able to capitalise but I thought we did today and that was the difference and how we scored four. The keeper, back four… everyone was brilliant. Their two front boys are good players, we know that, but we dealt with them well. It was a real team performance and that’s what we have been talking about all week. I know results haven’t been great for us but the team spirit, was very good and the boys, the fans and everyone at the club have a day that we deserved.”
1 Ryan Hall, 2 Harvey Whyte, 3 Dion Jarvis, 4 Calvin Davies (C), 5 Harvey Rew, 6 Chad Field, 7 Bailey Smith, 8 Doug Tuck, 9 Tommy-Lee Higgs, 10 Matt Burgess, 11 Jasper Mather. Substitutes: 12 Preston Woolston Doug Tuck (87′), 14 Dan Gifford Tommy-Lee Higgs (56′), 15 Freddie Chester Bailey Smith (75′), 16 Lewis Beale Jasper Mather (90+4).
*Meanwhile, Spencer Spurway has left the Rocks. The club wish Spencer all the best for the future and thank him for all of his efforts on behalf of Bognor.
