QUENTIN Monville came back to haunt his former club as the winger guided Bowers & Pitsea to a 1-0 win over Barking.

Bowers were looking to bounce back to winning ways after throwing away a two-goal lead to draw with Bury Town in their last Isthmian North outing.

And Monville, who joined Rob Small’s high-flyers from Justin Gardner’s Barking in the summer, scored the only goal of the game at Mayesbrook Park.

The hosts should have taken the lead inside seven minutes when a dangerous centre evaded Eusebio de Silva but found Brendan Ocran.

However, the winger was slow in pulling the trigger, allowing James Thomas and Richard Halle to make superb blocks to deny Barking.

Bowers missed the chance to open the scoring on the half hour mark.

After a neat passing move, Monville was brought down by Gary Cohen and the referee did not hesitate in pointing to the spot.

But Barking goalkeeper Tim Brown dived to his left to pull off a brilliant save and stop David Knight converting a penalty for the first time this season.

Bowers perhaps should have played more than half of the match with 10 men as Ryan Sammons brought down Ola Ogunwamide when the attacker appeared to be through on goal, but the ex-East Thurrock United full-back was only shown a yellow card three minutes before the break.

Small’s side came close to breaking the deadlock moments after the interval as Lewis Manor headed a Brad Warner corner goalwards, but the effort was cleared off the line.

Ocran fired into the side-netting, while substitute Marcus Mignot just missed the target as Barking looked to gain the upper hand.

Monville then forced Brown into a save soon before captain Martyn Stokes headed over the crossbar.

A glancing header from Manor, Bowers’ all-time record goalscorer, was also kept out by Brown but the visitors were to take the lead on 69 minutes.

An attempted one-two between Monville and Manor was broken up but ricocheted kindly into the path of the ex-Barking winger, who slotted into the far corner.

Monville was causing havoc down the left-hand side and, moments later, Knight saw an attempt cleared off the line following the winger’s centre.

However, Bowers had done enough to collect all three points and get their promotion push back on track.

Bowers & Pitsea: Wilton, Sammons, J. Thomas, Stokes, Clark (McCoy 82), Halle, Monville, Sartain, Manor, Knight (Stephen 84), Warner (S. Thomas 89)