Eventful finale as nine-man Aveley hold City

City completed their 24/25 campaign with an incident packed 2-2 draw against already relegated Aveley this afternoon. The home side were reduced to nine men early in the second half but almost pulled off a remarkable victory in manager Danny Scopes final game in charge.

The tone of the game was set in the opening minutes when Jesse Nwabueze was tripped as looked to get clear, but against the run of play the Millers went ahead on nine minutes, Holness firing home from close range. City continued to enjoy the majority of possession but couldn’t turn this into clear chances and had an escape in the 36th minute when Ogunrinde struck the crossbar. Two minutes later Aveley saw their first red of the game when Ring received a second caution for pulling down Jordan Alves.

The second half began with an off the ball incident in the penalty box involving Alves and Beadle. The former was left with a swollen eye and bloody nose and the latter a straight red card. And from the resultant penalty Nwabueze fired City level. It was effectively attack against defence now but City struggled to produce a telling final pass or cross. The closest they came saw Ewan Clark’s 69th minute shot strike the crossbar. Then with eleven minutes left a rare break by the Essex side caught City short-handed at the back and Kawa made no mistake from 10 yards. Suddenly facing an embarrassing end to the season, City responded within three minutes as Aveley failed to deal with an Alves cross allowing Scott Wilson to shoot past Holden. Despite seven minutes of stoppage time City couldn’t find a winner, the point seeing them finish in 15th place.