Timm van der Gugten praised an impressive Glamorgan bowling performance after the new signing led an evening session revival for the Welsh County.
Van der Gugten ended the day with figures of 4/77 – his best in a Glamorgan shirt – as the hosts battled back to reduce Essex to 300/9 before bad light curtailed the day's play.
Earlier, Tom Westley and Ravi Bopara both made scores of 80, before Glamorgan's bowlers came back into the game, led by the pacey Dutchman. Graham Wagg and Michael Hogan also took two apiece.
"It is quite a nice wicket to bowl on if you hit the right areas and if you bowl well enough for long enough you will get the rewards. I think as a team we bowled well today,” van der Gugten said at the close of play.
“They didn’t score more than two and a half runs an over all day I think that was testament to how we bowled."
Van der Gugten got the wickets of James Foster, Graham Napier and David Masters in quick succession as Essex lost five for 55 in the late afternoon and early evening.
The Dutchman added: “We always felt that if we grabbed a couple of wickets we would be on top. And we stayed patient and grabbed a couple and hopefully we can grab the last one tomorrow.
"If we can bat for an extended period of time and set them a decent total for the last day I think it will be tough for them to chase it down, especially if we bowl like we did today.”
Glamorgan will be looking to take the final Essex wicket tomorrow morning when play resumes at 11am. The visitors lead by 40 runs with one first innings wicket remaining.