Vastly improved.
There's no doubt that our visitors had vastly improved since we defeated them 7-1 away back in January and they certainly set themselves up to avoid such a defeat at the Community Stadium in this fixture.
They'd played three SCEFL matches since that defeat against us, winning 4-2 away at Deal Town, 4-1 at home to AFC Croydon Athletic, not an easy team to beat at home as we found out earlier in the season and in their last outing they lost 2-1 at home to Bearsted FC.
Therefore, everyone knew this would be a much tougher game than in January and with us riding high in the table, every team we play from now until the end of the season will do their upmost to make life very difficult for us and knock us down a peg or two, if they possible can.
Yesterday just went to prove the point, they had their pride to play for, we have our own nerves to overcome as the need to keep gathering points intensifies even more as each game comes and goes, after all, the prize is getting tantalisingly closer every week and our nearest rivals keep winning as well.
People may say the Crows didn't play that well in this match, however, the record books will so we won 2-1 and got the points, it won't say whether we played well or not, just that we won. At this stage of the campaign it's about getting the win, not the performance, although we'd all like to see the Champagne style we've played all season in every match we play, in reality, that just isn't going to happen.
Personally, I don't think we played badly at all and you have to give the opposition credit sometimes for the effort they put in to their organisation and play during the 90 minutes, or in this games case, throughout the 99 minutes the match lasted.
In truth the Crows should have had this match sewn up long before the final whistle blew, especially when you consider the number of chances that went begging in the first 45 minutes, due to some wasted chances, stout defending and some great, even if unconventional, goalkeeping by Rilwan Anibaba in the Dockers goal.
Twice in the early stages the stopper denied Attwood when he was through one-on-one, Muggeridge put a low cross in to the area which just evaded Attwood and Perry before being cleared, Carey had a volley just wide before Attwood put a dangerous cross over only for Perry to be a fraction late and the opportunity went begging.
Attwood then fired a shot inches wide after latching on to a poor defensive header and these efforts were all in the first 16 minutes, with very little coming back the other way. During this period the Crows had five corners as well although with the strong wind which was blowing diagonally across the pitch from the junior end to the dressing room end, they weren't that successful.
The Crows thought they had taken the lead in the 22nd minute when Attwood crossed another ball in to the area and Muggeridge put the ball home at the back post, however, the assistant referee's flag held aloft indicated that Muggeridge was in an offside position and the "goal" was chalked off, still 0-0.
Attwood, Boddy, twice and Crabb all had efforts or created good opportunities for others to score before the break but luck was not on our side at this time and half time was reached with a 0-0 score line.
The second half started in much the same vein, Attwood and Perry both having efforts, one went over, the other saved by Anibaba. The mounting pressure led to Mascharenhas getting a yellow card for a tackle and from the resulting free kick the ball eventually reached Perry about eight yards out in the centre of the goal, some neat control on the chest, a sharp turn and an excellent volley saw the Crows go 1-0 up in the 63rd minute.
The relief amongst most of the 154 spectators was palpable, that the deadlock had finally been broken and a rather stubborn defence had been breached. Coburn, the Erith Town captain, then received a yellow card for a late tackle before Erith then replaced Michaels with Gbihiri in an effort to get back in to the game in the 67th minute.
The away side up to the 75th minute hadn't really shown much up front but some rather unusual sloppy defending by Crows in the 76th minute led to Giwa scoring the equaliser for the Dockers. The Crows really should have cleared the ball to safety but tried to shield the ball out for a goal kick, unfortunately, Palmer managed to stop that happening before passing to Giwa to do the rest, 1-1 with 14 minutes left to play, or so we thought anyway.
Muggeridge had an opportunity to make it 2-1 in the 81st minute but his effort went wide of the mark as he was challenged just as he was shooting. Carrington then came on for Crabb and Vickers came on for Appiah as the Crows went in search of a winning goal.
That goal finally arrived in the 88th minute, the Dockers gave away a free kick on the corner of their area, some 20 yards out and Carey lined it up, just as he did last week away at Corinthian for the third goal. Perhaps this effort wasn't as powerful but the end result was the same as the ball nesstled in the corner of the net, much to the joy of all the Crows watching.
Anibaba in the Dockers goal then saw yellow for disputing the goal should count, his opinion based on the fact he felt a Crow was offside and in his line of sight, personally, just as the assistant referee, I couldn't tell if that was the case or not from where I was sitting, so the goal stood, 2-1 to the Crows.
Immediately Perry went off for the Crows and Pearson came on and having had a couple of stoppages for injuries, the referee indicated there would be a minimum of 5 minutes stoppage time to play.
Clark went off for Erith, Ogeoh coming on and as time drifted on there came some bizarre moments, Jenkins was seen to be heading towards the far end of the ground from his technical area, the reason why is unclear, before being taken back by one of his management team and then there was still time for a yellow and red card to be shown to a couple of Erith Town players.
With literally seconds left a Town player took exception to the ball not coming back from the home dugout as quick as he thought it should do a was subsequently booked, I believe it was their number 11 Simms but I might be wrong there. At the same time their scorer, Giwa, decided to get involved in a rather violent way in the referee's mind and was duly shown a straight red card for his troubles, although it was sometime before his management were able to convince him to leave the field of play.
Therefore, after 109 minutes, the final whistle blew and the Crows had the points and went to the top of the league for at least 24 hours, depending on how Ashford United get on away at Cray Valley PM in the league.
My Man of the Match went to Zac Attwood for his all-round display throughout the match.