Hello friends, i was eager to find out whether we can earn the promotion to league 1 so i will include the 2 games played in May to make up of my last post of my Thurrock story 2014/15 season. The results of the games that i am going to show you was unbelievable and i was still in a shock state of mind now. I think you can guess what happen based on my post title. Yes we had won promotion to league 1. And it was achieved by winning automation promotion to league 1. I don’t think any of you had expected that and myself definitely wasn’t expecting that too. But a turn of events in the last 7 games changed our fate for this season.

As you know from my last post, we were lying in 5th place 10 points behind 3rd place Tranmere. With 7 games left, just how did we come from behind and grab that last promotion spot?  I won’t be going every match in detail, i will just show you the overall results of Tranmere, MK Dons and Thurrock in April and May.

Tranmere April results

Just look at the results and you will be surprised to see that Tranmere lost all of their 5 games in April. I was amazed that they went woefully out of form in April. What about MK Dons?

MK Dons April results

MK Dons doesn’t do well either in April. Having won only 1 game, draw 2 games and lost 2 games. And its time to see how Thurrock did in April.

Thurrock April results

We had a great month with 3 victories and 2 draws. I was pleased with the determination and dedication of the players as there were few injuries suffered to some of our key players during the month. Jonathan Worthington was out for 1-2 weeks in the mid month period. In-form striker Scott Harvey was injured in the game against Macclesfield and will be out for 5-7 weeks. This will be his last game for Thurrock as his loan will be expiring soon. His 6 goals and 2 assists from 13 games contributed to our success this season. As Izale McLeod is out of form and Petr Kopecky still 2 weeks away from match fitness. I got no choice but to change our formation to 4-2-3-1 formation with Thomas Hitchcock alone up front. The players reacted well to the change and won the next 2 games against Walsall and York. But we pay some price there with few more injuries. Sam Wedgbury, Robbie Threlfall and most importantly Moreno Marra joined Petr Kopecky in the treatment room and won’t be involved in the remaining 2 games. It was a blow to lose Moreno Marra!

In total, we had 11 points, MK Dons had 5 points and Tranmere had no points added this month. The latest table saw us leapfrogged Tranmere and MK Dons to 3rd place. Bournemouth and Oldham had already confirmed finishing 1st and 2nd and won promotion to league 1. The ball is definitely in our court now, if we can win the remaining two games, we will be playing league 1 football next season. We will be facing Tranmere next month and probably confirming our promotion if we win against them. We finish the season with our last game against Accrington.

I am not sure whether this is good or bad news but i hope the players will keep their focus on the field. At this point of time, a consortium is planning a takeover of the club and talks are ongoing. I hope this will not drag too long.

Lets shift our attention to the game against Tranmere. We will be playing them at home and i had high confidence with the team as they had suffered 5 defeats in a row. The players put in their maximum efforts in this games creating 19 chances in this game but ended up with no reward. The game finished a goalless draw. I couldn’t fault the players with their efforts and commitment, its just not our day. The position looks like this after the fixture as MK Dons had lost their game against Darlington.

Thurrock – 75 points

Tranmere – 74 points

MK Dons – 73 points

So it will go down to the last game. If we win against Accrington, regardless of the results from Tranmere and MK Dons we will get promoted.

We did it. Thomas Hitchcock and Karl Kite(I loaned him as a replacement for Moreno Marra) was the heroes of this game, scoring the goals in the first half to give us a 2-0 win. The fans and the board were ecstatic and i believe everyone associated with the club never really see this coming. I was also trying to get to the terms that we will be playing league 1 football next season. As my post title really says it all, it was luck and miracle that we are able to achieve this feat.

This is the final table of the 2014/15 season. Tranmere won the play-off final against MK Dons through penalty and joined us, Oldham and Bournemouth in league 1 next season while Macclesfield and York will be playing Blue Square Premier football next season. Our good run in the last few months really turned the tables around. Though we were drawing a lot of games but we had been unbeaten since February while Tranmere and MK Dons were dropping a lot of points during the final stages.

Here is the ratings of the Thurrock heroes. Moreno Marra had the highest rating of 7.54 and Thomas Hitchcock was the highest scorer with 32 goals in all competition. Each and everyone of them played their part during the run-in and the fans should be grateful to them but i am sorry that probably a few of them will not be wearing the Thurrock shirt next season.

Here you go dear friends, we finished the season with an unexpected promotion to league 1 and everybody is looking forward to face league 1 teams next season. Thank you very much for your support to the Thurrock team all this while, there is a bigger challenge facing us and i really need to spend some time looking for players who can ensure our survival and establish our position in league 1. I will leave you here and see you in my next post Thurrock 2015/16 Pre-Season.