AVELEY, Grays Athletic and Tilbury enjoyed a fine weekend as Isthmian North football returned.

The Millers came from behind to see off Heybridge Swifts, while Grays grabbed their second win of the season.

A late penalty was enough for Tilbury to secure a share of the spoils at Coggeshall Town.

Aveley 3-2 Heybridge Swifts

Aveley overcame a two-goal deficit to claim a 3-2 victory over Heybridge Swifts.

The Millers were looking to bounce back from their setback at Felixstowe & Walton United, but Jody Brown’s Swifts took the lead midway through the first half as Sam Bantick grabbed the opener.

However, the visitors were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half-time as Ryan Henshaw saw red at Parkside.

But the dismissal did not deter the away side as Bantick grabbed his second goal of the game four minutes after the break.

The comeback kicked into action after 67 minutes, with Alex Akrofi finding the back of the net.

And James Webster’s side were back on level terms two minutes later as Akrofi completed his brace.

The comeback was complete with 18 minutes still to play, with Tom Richardson netting what proved to be the winner, Both sides went in search of further goals, but three goals was enough for Aveley to pick up a valuable three points.

Brentwood Town 0-1 Grays Athletic

A goal from Michael Mignot allowed Grays Athletic to arrest their recent run of defeats and claim their first victory since the opening day of the season at Brentwood Town.

Grays were the better side throughout the Isthmian North encounter and home goalkeeper Rob Budd was forced into an early save by Shomari Barnwell.

Brentwood - despite being under pressure - could have gone in front, only to be denied by Lloyd Anderson, who plunged to his left to push away a well-struck free-kick.

A flurry of activity saw another chance fall to Brentwood's Quba Gordon, but he wasted the chance by nodding over.

After all the near misses in the first period, Grays struck within a minute of the restart.

Barnwell nodded the ball to substitute Adeyinka Cole and with a deft touch he helped the ball on to Mignot, who rifled the ball past Budd to record his first league goal in Grays colours.

Grays continued to push forward but could not find that elusive second goal to put clear daylight between the sides.

Budd did well to push out a fierce Cole strike and then denied Dennis Oli by getting a hand to the striker’s cross-shot.

The visitors should have wrapped the game up when Cole broke free and, with only Budd to beat, he somehow missed the target from close range, sliding the ball wide of the upright.

Minutes later he stung Budd's hand with a piledriver, which the goalkeeper did well to push away.

A late flurry from Brentwood failed to produce any openings and Grays held on to record a deserved win.

Coggeshall Town 1-1 Tilbury

Tilbury picked up a well-deserved point at high-flying Coggeshall Town.

Manager Joe Keith gave debuts to Rhys Madden, Ryan Boswell and substitute Reuben Mudd in the 1-1 draw.

The Dockers took the game to their opponents early in the game and while there was little goalmouth action in the first half, Madden did need to be alert to deal with a fine Connor Hubble effort inside the opening 10 minutes.

Tilbury started the second period well with Abdul Salami heading towards goal, but he was denied by a good James Bransgrove save.

Minutes later, Siju Odelusi then rattled the crossbar as his looping header drifted towards the far post, with only the frame of the goal saving Coggeshall.

Tilbury should have broken the deadlock just before the hour mark but Joe Paxman failed to find the target following a goalmouth scramble, while Lewis Smith was denied by a fine diving save a minute later.

After 65 minutes, the home side opened the scoring when a rasping shot was saved by Madden but Hubble then followed up his initial effort to find the back of the net.

The Dockers looked to get back into the game and Albie Keith saw his effort go wide before finding the net with 10 minutes remaining only to see the linesman’s flag up for offside.

Harry Norman had to be at his best to clear a Kevin Coyle attempt off the goal-line.

It was then the home side who had to clear a Smith effort off the line.

Tilbury pushed hard and they were rewarded with two minutes remaining.

Tom Anderson’s header was parried over the crossbar by George Cocklin, who was shown a red card for handball.

Smith stepped up and tucked away the spot-kick for a share of the spoils.