As good as Grays have been this season, there still remains a problem - their indifferent record against Essex sides in the Ryman Premier.

The current record reads: P 6 W 1 D 2 L 3.

And of all the county's sidesit's probably Billericay, even ahead of Purfleet, that Blues and their supporters would love to beat the most.

That's all down to one Gary Calder, who walked out of The Rec four years ago to take up the manager's job at Enfield before, a season later, moving on to New Lodge.

Since Grays returned to the top flight they've yet to beat Billericay, although should have changed that on Saturday.

With the back-from-injury Craig Edwards Jnr outstanding, Blues had the lions share of possession and all the chances against opposition that, following a recent poor run, were more than happy to get most of their number behind the ball.

It proved good enough for Billericay to become only the fourth team in 20 league games to prevent Craig Edwards Snr's shot-shots from hitting the target.

One of the chief reasons for that was goalkeeper Gavin King who, ironically, made a couple of major errors in the previous two games.

Most of the Blues' past chances were to fall to Nathan Thomas who hasn't been at his sharpest in recent weeks.

One of his efforts, though, was well saved by King, who made two outstanding saves in the second period when he deflected an Alex Fiddes effort wide and denied Thomas again from Steve Robinson's cross.

Billericay's attacking forays were mainly on the counter but they never offered enough support to front men Simba and Opara.

Blues remain fifth, but have a fairly modest recent league record - against all teams. Just the one win in five, although tomorrow (Saturday) they will be unpleasantly surprised if failing to defeat bottom-of-the-table Harrow.

Published Tuesday December 18, 2001