Bath City 1, Thurrock 0 (From Echo)

Bath City 1, Thurrock 0

10:36am Monday 8th March 2010 in

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Thurrock, back in action after a two-week break, saw their play-off hopes hit with this West Country defeat.

They are currently seventh in the table and, although they have games in hand on most of their rivals, boss Hakan Hayrettin reckons every game will be a cup final for them now if they are to keep alive their promotion dreams.

After this defeat he said: “It was a fiery match and I think Bath were the better team in the opening half.

“In the second period we changed our system a bit and huffed and puffed but couldn’t get the goal — although their keeper pulled off a couple of great saves.”

There was major controversy over the 38th-minute Bath goal which settled the issue, Kaid Mohamed clearly moving back from an offside position as Darren Edwards moved onto a downfield ball from Chris Holland to score.

Said Hayrettin: “I thought the Bath player was offside and attempted to go for the ball. My reading of the game’s laws is that he should have been given offside and the goal disallowed.”

The best equalising chance came when Matt Bodkin’s 25-yard free-kick saw Rob Swaine head powerfully towards goal, only for home keeper Ryan Robinson to produce a fingertip save to turn the ball round the post.

Thurrock will hope to boost their play-off hopes in tomorrow night’s home Essex derby with Braintree, who are also among the clubs battling for a say in the promotion mix.