Brightlingsea Regent see off East Thurrock United for vital win

The R's beat East Thurrock United 2-1 in front of nearly 300 at North Road to move above their opponents in 19th spot, in Pitching In Isthmian League Premier.

Munyard has now led Regent to ten points from his first six matches in charge, as they finish the calendar year on a high.

Writing on Twitter, he said: "Incredible reaction second half from the entire squad!! 10 points from our last 6 games now and huge improvements made! Thank you to all the supporters once again who day were fantastic once again."

Henry Day, Ollie Bell, Aaron Blair and Josh Banfield all made their home debuts for Brightlingsea.

After a quiet first half, East Thurrock took the lead just before the break through Jake Gordon's unstoppable first-time effort that flew just inside Charlie Turner’s right-hand post.

But Regent responded in the best possible way just after the break when Blair was put through to slot home an equaliser within a minute of the restart.

And the R's scored what proved to be their winner when Janata could not gather Bell's fierce free-kick and Zack Littlejohn tapped in for his second goal in two games.

Both sides went for all out attack with Thurrock forcing two last-ditch clearances at one end and Janata denying the Regent forwards at the other.

In the closing minutes as Thurrock threw everything into attack Littlejohn was booked twice in quick succession, leaving Regent down to ten men.

The visitors packed the Regent penalty area in added time, with goalkeeper Janata coming up for a set piece.

With the Thurrock goal unguarded Regent cleared the ball and put Valter Rocha in the clear near the halfway line.

With their defence racing back two Thurrock defenders converged on Rocha and brought him down.

The Regent support were dismayed to see Ben Wyss only receive a yellow card for the offence but almost immediately the final whistle meant that Regent got the three points their performance fully deserved.