Southend Manor 6 Herongate Athletic 1

Friendly Match, Thursday May 27

I had said to myself no more football until at least the 2021/22 season as I needed a break from it after the last few weeks, but when I saw my local side Southend Manor had a friendly over the other side of the park against Herongate Athletic I thought why not seeing as it was such a lovely evening and was much better than sitting at home instead!!!

The Essex Senior League hosts, who were also playing in blue and white stripes and not their normal yellow and black attire (which was confusing as Herongate were wearing yellow and it took a few minutes to get used to this fact), were having one last run out before the summer break, whilst the visitors, who play in the Essex Olympian Division One, were trying some players out but only had a bare eleven for this contest.

And Manor showed their class early on and found themselves three goals up in seventeen minutes, taking the lead after nine minutes when a cross to the back post was completely missed by the forward, but the loose ball fell to another hosts attacker who swept home from close range, and then just before the quarter hour mark a cross from the left saw a finish on the stretch creep in off the inside of the post.

And on seventeen minutes it was three when a cross hung up to the back post was brilliantly headed home at the back stick after a salmon like leap from the forward, and you feared a bit for the visitors as this stage, although Herongate did immediately pull a goal back when they got in behind, rounded the keeper, and although a defender on the line tried his best to block the goal bound effort, he could only help it on its way into the net.

To be fair to the visitors they did pose an attacking threat to the hosts in the first period and forced some decent stops from the Manor keeper, but they had to keep the hosts at bay down the other end on more than one occasion too as the half ended with Manor holding a 3-1 lead.

The second half was only four minutes old when Manor added a fourth though after a dinked cross into the six-yard box saw four visiting defenders fail to pick up the one attacker inside the box and he ghosted in to power home a close-range header, and thereafter the hosts totally dominated the contest but had to wait until the 79^th minute for number five when a cross was chested home at the near post.

And a sixth goal soon came for Manor barely two minutes later when the full back cut inside onto his left foot and fired a left-footed effort beyond the keeper and into the net, a good run out for both sides then and in the end a rather unsurprising comfortable win for the Essex Senior League outfit.

Full time Southend Manor 6 Herongate Athletic 1