An action packed game, with plenty of incidents, should have ended with the spoils even, but thanks to a poor decision from the ref, Basildon left with all three points, which in turn left Manor feeling as though they had just been mugged. Basildon started the match much the stronger of the two teams, and put the home side defence under pressure from the off. Desperate defending and fine goal keeping were somehow keeping the visitors from opening the scoring, the pressure finally told when a Danny Midford clearance fell to Basildon’s Jones who headed past Prince for the opener. Manor continued to soak up the pressure and with Jesper Nielsen in commanding form at the heart of the defence, slowly started to edge their way back into the game, efforts from Forde, Passfield, Morris and Midford all tested the Bee’s keeper, but failed to find the back of the net. Morris had the best chance of the half for the home side, when a miss kick from the Bee’s keeper fell at his feet, he rounded the last man and with the goal at his mercy, fired into the side netting. So 1-0 at the break and with Manor sensing they were still well in the game, a superb 45mins was to follow. Manor pushed for the equaliser and went close on a number of occasions, the best falling to Forde, who just failed to get on the end of a Whitelock cross after the midfielder had weaved his way into the box. A succession of free kicks to the home side finally paid off, when a loose ball dropped invitingly for Danny Midford, who drilled a left foot shot into the corner of the net for the equaliser. 10 mins left and the game looked to heading Manors way, Basildon were rocking and looked to be there for the taking, when a most bizarre refereeing decision gave Basildon the game. Manor’s keeper Carl Prince, under no pressure, leapt to catch a high ball, after taking control of the ball, a Basildon player jumped into him and blatantly fouled the Keeper, Prince lost his footing and made contact again with the striker, for which the ref awarded a penalty to the visitors, admitting he missed the earlier contact on the keeper, 2-1 Basildon, end of game.Manor’s M.O.M. went to Delroy Forde, worked hard as the lone striker.