Isthmian League Velocity Trophy Quarter Finals, Tuesday 13th February
Tuesday night saw me pop over to New Lodge for an all Isthmian Premier Velocity Trophy Last Eight tie between hosts Billericay Town, who sat third in the division, and second placed Chatham Town, both are going for promotion into Step Two of the non league pyramid but tonight it was about league cup glory and a place in the last four of the competition.
The hosts had seen off local Isthmian North side Bowers & Pitsea & then needed penalties to see of Cheshunt in Round Four, visitors Chatham Town netted victory on the road at Three Bridges before defeating Basildon United, who are just down the road from New Lodge, in the last round to set up this tie between two high flying sides.
Both sides form has been mixed of late though, and they both had three wins and two losses in their last five outings, which sees them both losing ground to runaway leaders Hornchurch who are now nine clear of second placed Chatham and thirteen clear of Billericay Town, so realistically these two are headed for the play offs providing they can find some good form between now and the end of the season.
The two sides had already met here at New Lodge earlier in the season, and Billericay recorded a 2-0 win on a Tuesday night back on November 7th with Richard Asamoah & Moses Emmanuel netting the goals in front of 462 that night, Asamoah was in in the hosts line-up again for this cup tie, could he net again and could The Blues record another win against the Kent visitors?
Well, the crowd was down from the previous game these two played as despite a reduced entrance fee for this tie, only 238 were in the ground to watch this contest, with a good number from Kent who made themselves heard at times, and after a decent start from the home side which saw Alfie Cerulli miss a golden chance inside the first few minutes, once Chatham settled they began to have the better of the opening half.
And with twenty eight minutes on the clock they countered on the hosts with devastating fashion, and it ended with defender Jamie Mascoll being slipped in on goal, and he showed striker qualities so slot beyond Dan Wilks in the hosts goal to give The Chats the advantage, and make their fans behind the goal very happy indeed.
Wilks then produced an amazing double save to deny Chats from doubling their lead just before the break, but after half time the match really got bogged down with very little in the way of chances, and I was sitting there thinking how I was going to have anything to write about in this blog, it was a very poor second half but thankfully for me things did happen late on.
The hosts, who did not look like scoring, found a leveller with eighty three minutes on the clock when Cerulli pounced on a loose ball inside the box to slot past visiting keeper Mitchell Beeney and into the far corner, and suddenly the hosts sensed victory, but it did not come and so penalties were needed to decide this contest.
Beeney was to be a major factor in the shootout too, as after both sides had netted their opening two spot kicks, one of which Beeney got a big hand too but could not keep out, the Chats stopper saved the next two leaving his side on the brink of victory, Chatham did miss a kick to win the shootout leaving the hosts having to score to keep it going, but sadly for the hosts they blazed that one over the bar meaning it's Chatham Town who progress into the Semi Finals of the Velocity Trophy.
Full time Billericay Town 1 Chatham Town 1 (Chatham Town won 3-2 on penalties)
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