Report
It took the F.A. Cup to bring out the best in this young Leyton Pennant side: they sowed their capability to play good football by taking an early 2-0 lead but, once again that lack of experience allowed Eat Thurrock to take advantage of defensive errors to force the replay.
The Lilywhites opened brightly with Lee Gildersleve and Richard Chick and Lee Mitchell tearing holes in the away team’s defence. They controlled the midfield and snuffed out every East Thurrock attack with ease. It was no surprise then, that Mitchell finally broke the deadlock on 32 minutes with a hard fought for goal. He was on hand to head the ball onto the Thurrock bar from ten yards out. He then fought the challenges of three defenders to head home the rebound. Dave Root, in the East Thurrock goal could only vainly attempt to scoop the ball back from going over the line but, by then, both referee and linesman had signalled a goal.
Moments later the Lilywhites increased their lead when Gildersleve’s long pass found Jamie Richards to the left of the opposition’s goal. His deft cross was met by Jay Notley who happily slid the ball into the net. Things were looking rosy until the 42nd minute when a poor pass by Neil Tilley was intercepted by Paul Pizzey whose equally short pass to Danny Winney left him with the simplest of jobs to slot home.
Within three minutes East Thurrock were on level terms when the home defence gifted a second goal to the visitors. The defence had drifted over to the left leaving Mark Cox by himself in the middle. The cross came over and all he had to do was shoot and score from 20 yards.
The second half saw East Thurrock spending more time in the Lilywhites’ half of the field but they certainly were not the threat everyone expected them to be. In fact it was the Lilywhites who grew in confidence and threatened the visitors’ goal on the break. Gildersleve had a half chance to seal the match on 86 minutes but Root spread himself enough to force the shot wide. Although honours were even, Martyn Busson must take a great deal of pleasure at the current improvement in performance.