With top rivals Aylesbury and St Albans away on FA Umbro Trophy duty, Purfleet had hoped to move back to the top of the Ryman League Premier Division with home success over relegation-threatened Slough Town.

However, Slough, managed by former Spurs and England defender Graham Roberts, rocked the homesters in front of a 225 crowd by scoring four goals in the opening 33 minutes and eventually winning 4-0.

In the First Division, Grays stayed close on the trail of the promotion pacesetters with a 1-0 win at Uxbridge.

However, it was gloom all the way in Division Three. Aveley, in new manager Les Whitton's first match in charge since his switch from Barkingside, went down 2-1 at home to Southall.

Tilbury's recent poor run continued when they lost 1-0 to a visiting Wingate and Finchley side pushing for promotion.

East Thurrock United, who former Chelmsford striker Jamie Reilly joined this week from Canvey Island, were beaten 3-2 at Flackwell Heath. A majestic Alan Brett header two minutes into injury time allowed Canvey Island to pick up the three points they needed to move into second place in the Ryman League First Division promotion race.

However, major talking point as Gulls pulled off a win over Surrey draw specialists Molesey . . . who'd shared the spoils in 13 of their previous 23 games . . . was the brutal treatment meted out by the opposition on star Canvey striker Steve Parmenter.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.