Gravesend & Northfleet 2 Grays Athletic 0

GRAVESEND & Northfleet fired a warning to the rest of the Nationwide Conference with an impressive win over Grays at Stonebridge Road on Tuesday night.

Fleet boss Liam Daish said before the start of the season that his team would surprise a few people and that was certainly the case against a Grays side who were clearly second best.

The Essex side were second in the table before kick-off – with a 100 per cent away record – but were convincingly beaten in front of a bumper crowd of 1,200.

Fleet took the lead with a swift break on 22 minutes when Luke Moore ran at the Grays defence before threading the ball through to Jon Keeling on the left and his cross was turned in by Charlie MacDonald.

Fleet went close to adding a second in first-half stoppage-time when Mark DeBolla’s first time strike from the edge of the area went narrowly wide, before Jamie Smith had a header cleared off the line on the hour mark.

Two minutes later, Aaron McLean missed Grays’s best chance when he lifted his shot over the bar as keeper Lance Cronin came off his line.

Fleet immediately scored their second when a trademark long range effort by DeBolla flew into the bottom right hand corner on 63 minutes.

Gravesend: Cronin, J Smith, McCarthy, R Smith, Ricketts (Hawkins 84mins), Coleman, Quinn, Keeling, DeBolla, Moore (Sodje 83mins), MacDonald.
Subs not used: Mott, Purcell, Ekoku.
Attendance: 1,200.