Danny Francis' last grasp equaliser cancelled out Patrick Demali's opener to earn Tilbury a point against Redbridge at the Oakside stadium.

It was a cagey beginning as both teams looked to get the breakthrough early on with half-chances at either end, but the first real chance of the half came 30 minutes in. Tilbury's Harry Cook played through Conor Head as his shot was central of the goal, allowing the Redbridge keeper to palm the ball over the bar for a corner.

But Redbridge were immediately on the counter-attack, as Ben Bradbury picked the ball up just inside his own half and dribbled all the way to the edge of the box before taking the shot on which rolled wide, unfortunately for the Motormen.

The home side were soon in their stride and were looking the more likely to take the lead, with Eljay Worrell and Emeil Aiken linking up well down the left-hand side.

The Motormen's persistence nearly paid off as the ball was fired into the box from the left and appeared to strike a Tilbury player's arm, the referee blew his whistle but admitted not to seeing whether the hand-ball was inside the area or not. After confronting the linesman (who also didn’t see), the referee awarded a freekick to Redbridge which eventually came to nothing.

With the half time whistle imminent, Redbridge saw another chance go begging. Worrell's chipped ball into Geoffrey Mitchell was measured to perfection, giving the striker an opportunity to drill the ball across goal, the Tilbury keeper palmed the cross back out into the feet of Aiken, who could only watch it hit him and go out for a goal kick as the half time whistle blew.

With goals lacking, joint Redbridge managers Dave Ross and Ricky Eaton decided to make a change at the break, seeing top goalscorer Leslie Thompson come on for Gary Henty.

The substitution didn’t seem to change much from the first half, except some controversial refereeing decisions which had much of the supporters from both teams baffled.

But if anything, the confusion sparked the Motormen into life and the home side were soon dominating the second half. Bostry Bansenden was linking up well with Aiken down the right hand side, creating chances in the middle for Mitchell and Patrick Damali.

The dominance eventually paid-off for Redbridge, as a Ben Bradbury corner was swung into Aiken who neatly headed back across goal for Damali to hammer it home for what looked like the winning goal with less than 15 minutes to play.

Tilbury manager Paul Vaughan used his initiative to make a change almost immediately after his side conceded the opening goal by bringing on Danny Francis for Lee Weemes.

With seconds remaining some supporters were heading for the exit as the game looked all but over, but Cook's desperate effort was somehow deflected over the keeper and into the path of Tilbury substitute Danny Francis, who tapped the ball into the net to earn the away side a valuable point.

Report by Josh Harris