Supersub Bode Anidugbe scored twice in the last seven minutes to seal a come back on the road for Thamesmead Town against a strong Thurrock side.

Anidugbe, who returned to the club during the summer after spell’s last season at both Lordswood and Chatham Town, had been introduced for Adrian Stone just past the hour mark levelled Glenn Poole’s opener with a sensational strike on 83 minutes before drilling home the winner in stoppage time following a fantastic chase by Jay Porter and a great pass from Luke Coleman.  Indeed the Mead’s margin of victory could have been even greater had Coleman’s stunning lob deep into injury time hadn’t bounced off of the top of the cross-bar.

The game saw the visitors christen the club’s new Errea away kit – blue and white stripes – and they started on the back foot as the home side came out of the blocks very well and early on the Mead were indebted early on to a great clearance from Nathan Simpson to hack the ball to safety.  For a lot of the first half, Thurrock enjoyed a lot of the ball with a lot of possession but with Jack Mahoney covering a lot of ground in the middle of the park and debutant loanee Joe Denny and Lewis Taylor standing resolute and determined, although the Mead had a few scares, Andy Walker wasn’t really called into a great deal of action…  until that is he made a terrific full length save to deny home skipper David Cowley.

The second half began with Ronnie Winn just missing out on being clear of the Mead defense before Ross Wall thundered in a header than cannoned off the underside of Walker’s cross bar before rebounding to safety.  Anidugbe’s introduction came shortly after this and soon after, the Mead had their first real sight of goal when Paul Vines fired just wide of the right post after a fine through ball from Scott Kinch before a Jay corner flew all the way across the face of goal leaving home keeper Darren Behcet in a heap as the ball flashed wide.

With just thirteen minutes left, Poole battled through on the edge of the box to fire high into the Mead net to seemingly point the home side towards the three points.

In what was an incredible finale, Anidugbe equalised with just seven minutes left as he was found by Coleman before drilling the ball into the top corner of Behcet’s net with the keeper nowhere.  But instead of celebrating the goal with his happy team-mates the substitute’s first actions?  He sprinted to retrieve the ball out of the back of the Thurrock net to restart the game as quickly as possible.

With the clock showing 90 minutes, Porter chased down a seeming lost cause dispossessing a defender on the edge of the box on the way.  Coleman following up then brilliantly found Anidugbe on the right edge of the box and the youngster arrowed his drive beyond a despairing keeper and into the bottom corner of the net.

There was still excitement to come in stoppage time when first Walks pulled off a great block to deny Poole before Coleman was only denied a glorious third by the top of the Thurrock bar.

So after a pre-season of poor results, two stunning victories to start the season was just what “Dr Tommy Warrilow” ordered – now for history and the first ever FA Cup tie played on Guernsey…

THURROCK – Darren Behcet, Junior Appiah, Lewis Clark, Richard Halle, Robbie Martin, James Goode, Joe Christou, Glenn Poole, Ronnie Winn (Charlie Stimson), Ross Wall, David Cowley

Subs – Connor Wheatley, Alfie Amato, Ross Gleed, Jordan Clark

THAMESMEAD TOWN – Andy Walker, Fraser Walker, Nathan Simpson, Scott Kinch, Lewis Knight, Joe Denny, Jack Mahoney (Luke Coleman), Cristian Nanetti, Paul Vines, Adrian Stone (Bode Anidugbe), Jay Porter

Subs – Cesc Fakinos, Richard Butler & Tyler McCarthy