Tamworth

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Liam Diash

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Tamworth 3-4 Ebbsfleet United

Ebbsfleet United will ply their trade in the Blue Square South next season after they were relegated from the Blue Square Premier despite beating Tamworth 4-3 in a seven-goal thriller played at The Lamb Stadium on Saturday.

Fleet substitute Scott Ginty netted a brace to keep his side's survival hopes alive, however, results elsewhere didn't go their way as Liam Daish's chrages finished second from bottom.

Iyseden Christie, Michael Wylde and Bradley Pritchard scored for the home side, but Ginty's double and goals by Magno Vieira and Ricky Shakes gave the Fleet three points.

The visitors started off the stronger of the two sides and Magno Vieira almost gave them the lead after just five minutes when he pounced on a misplaced back pass, but his weak effort was never going to trouble the goalkeeper.

However, it was the home side that took the lead against the run of play when Richard Tait played a ball over the top for Christie, who rounded Lance Cronin and coolly slotted home.

But just a minute later United were back on level terms when Vieira nodded in a Michael West corner at the near post.

Daish's troops then re-took the lead on 38 minutes when Shakes took advantage of a poor back pass by Chris Smith to make it 2-1.

However, two minutes later the scores were even again as Wylde headed home after the Fleet defence failed to deal with a Neil Mackenzie corner.

The visitors went behind again just before the hour-mark when Pritchard blasted the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the area with an acrobatic effort.

But Ebbsfleet were not done and they gave themselves hope with 12 minutes to go when Ginty scored from a rebound after Shakes' shot was blocked.

Three minutes later Ginty netted his second after he latched onto a Stefan Bailey ball into the area before lobbing the keeper to give his side a 4-3 win.

Unfortunately it proved to be too little too late for Ebbsfleet in terms of their season as they were unable to avoid relegation.

Tamworth Bookings: Smith

Ebbsfleet United Bookings: None

Ref: James Adcock (Nottinghamshire).

Att: 1,694.