Stan Vennes trophy

report from essex enquirer

http://www.theenquirer.co.uk/Grays+lift+derby+trophy%20id=3025

Match report from Grayscum forum:

martin's tilbury match report
a bit threadbare on match personnel!

Grays Athletic 1 Tilbury 0
Stan Veness Trophy
Saturday 7th August
By Martin Candler

Grays Athletic and Tilbury renewed their traditional rivalry by contesting the resurrected Stan Veness Trophy at Rookery Hill. After a close encounter, both sides had reasons for optimism; Grays, because they showed some pleasing football throughout and Tilbury for showing a marked improvement on recent friendly outings. In front of a gate of 282, the match began with the Blues dominating with some fluent inter-passing but the Dockers, backed by their small but raucous travelling support—Tilbury ale must be so strong!, had a golden chance when Jack West found himself clear in front of goal but his finish was weak. From then on central defenders Duran Reynolds and Harlee Deen allowed the Tilbury’s strikers few opportunities, and with the lively Alex Osborn and ex-Docker Jared Small linking well up front, it was no surprise when Grays took the lead in the 21st minute. A fine cross from the left from Steven Demetriou was headed home by Osborn and for a while it looked as if Grays were going to run away with the match. But a lack of a cutting edge by the Blues and dogged Tilbury defending resulted in the scoreline remaining the same till the interval although Ben Boyce did clip the bar with a fine shot and Small went close with a diving header.

In the second half, the game lost a bit of shape as both sides made substitutions, although Grays had two fair shouts for penalties and Tilbury a less contentious one late in the game. In summary, Grays were the more fluent side but did not show a “killer” instinct in front of goal while Tilbury stuck to their task well. Both managers, Julian Dicks of Grays and Paul Vaughan of Tilbury, expressed their satisfaction with the way that their teams performed but were equally aware that there is a need for improvement in the strength of their respective squads. The Trophy was presented to the victors after the match by George Watts, who fittingly has strong links with both towns and both sets of fans left the ground with a feeling of optimism for the coming season.

just like to say that yesterday was another amazing day out, good to see so many dockers turn up,ithought we were ment to be the away team, the fans were loud,loyal,and second to none,days like that are special long may they continue, up the dockers, tilbury til i die, im tilbury til i die i know i am im sure i am im tilbury til i die tin can gang we,re aving a laugh, tin can gang we,re aving a laugh

CHUBBA wrote:I thought we played a lot better than in any of the other games so far and think we may have nicked a draw
Good day out tho many more to come over the next few months no doubt
Our songs are a bit repetive but like clarry said we dont know who's who yet in our squad but being repetive is better than being quiet
From what i see yesterday i dont think either team will be pushing for promotion but i think respectable league positions should be capable

Well said mate we know our excuse and I thought they played better yesterday but if grays think they are going to get out of the divison with that squad they better think again. There's a lot of very good sides in it this year I don't think grays with the squad on display which included 5 players we let go because they wasn't good enough, will be strong enough to cope with the physical demands of this division!!!!!

I thought we played a lot better than in any of the other games so far and think we may have nicked a draw
Good day out tho many more to come over the next few months no doubt
Our songs are a bit repetive but like clarry said we dont know who's who yet in our squad but being repetive is better than being quiet
From what i see yesterday i dont think either team will be pushing for promotion but i think respectable league positions should be capable

We still had a couple of triallists on display yesterday, it wasn't our full squad out there, So Dicksy is still getting a squad built

200 to 300 is our fan base, the "glory hunters" will only come back if we start winning regularly. Before we reached the dizzy heights we were only getting that many to our games even though our Trust is trying to increase the numbers. It will take time to settle into Rookery Hill but hopefully we can have a good season and get the atmosphere back again, and a lot of our "noisy" crew are away on holiday so the singing was a non happening.

Have a good season and I would love to see Tilbury and Grays in the top six come New Years Day, which would make a great atmosphere on the day.

See you through the season

Old Mutt wrote:I'll echo what Clarry has stated. If both teams play in the league as they played today then they will account well of themselves. Not sure about the lino and the dis-allowed goal, he was crap all game. He miissed what we all thought were two obvious penalties, one for each team.

You lot are a noisy crowd we heard the singing even when you were all in the bar. Bit repetitive but good voices.

Old Mutt

I thought Grays had a couple of really good players in your left back and number 21 (left wing second half), one thing I will say is our manager seemed to take this game as part of the pre season preperation changing and trialing different things, whereas Dicks (football genius) seemed to stick to one way of playing.

I thought your support was poor today, where are all the glory hunters?? I know they dont matter to us real fans but to drop down to 200-300 wtf is going on?

As for our singing being repetative please remember we still dont have a first team, last year we had songs for about 75% of all our players. This year as soon as we get a settled side the songs will come.

Good luck for the rest of the season, I honestly hope when we play on New Years day there's something in it rather than just local rivalry. Grays are where they are now due to bad management and people like you dont deserve to suffer because of it. On a plus side for you the pitch today looked good, nice surface for proper football.

'Julian Dicks is a football genius'

I'll echo what Clarry has stated. If both teams play in the league as they played today then they will account well of themselves. Not sure about the lino and the dis-allowed goal, he was crap all game. He miissed what we all thought were two obvious penalties, one for each team.

You lot are a noisy crowd we heard the singing even when you were all in the bar. Bit repetitive but good voices.

Just got in from today's game and thought I needed to come on and praise the team for their efforts today. Although we lost we showed we could match Grays and should've drawn (disallowed goal).

It looks to me like Paul is getting together the backbone of a half decent side with the resources he's got. We all know we wouldn't be pulling up any trees this season and I thought it was going to be a lot worse.

Great support as well today boys and a good sign from the team when they came over at the end to thank us (any players reading this should understand it is the right thing to do and is appreciated, the fans make good friends but bad enemies )

Well done Paul Vaughan, I think you may be winning us over

''Paul Vaughan's black and white army, 'Paul Vaughan's black and white army''