Southend Manor 3 Athletic Newham 4

Essex Senior League, Tuesday August 24th

Tuesday night saw me back at my local ground in the shape of Southchurch Park for an Essex Senior League contest between Southend Manor and Athletic Newham, and a crazy ending saw the visitors net twice to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat and break hosts hearts in the process.

Traffic on the A127 leading into Southend was busy as per usual, which held the visitors up in getting to the ground until 7.15pm, but with no request of a delayed kick off time forthcoming, the match began at 7.49pm, earlier than I had anticipated that was for sure, would it affect the visitors though, they like Manor had been dumped out of the FA Cup at the weekend so were also looking to record a positive result here to try and get that disappointment out of there system.

The hosts were on a three game losing streak themselves in all competitions so needed a positive outcome in this one, and they did start the game in a positive Manor (pardon the pun!!!) but then saw the visitors strike the post before taking the lead soon after on the quarter hour mark when an unfortunate ricochet saw the ball land into the path of Richard Kone who fired past Jack Allen.

It didn't take Manor long to respond though as five minutes later levelled as a cross into the box saw visiting keeper Wilkinson Boateng flap at it and saw the ball loop to the far post where Luka Frankis was on hand to send a looping header into the net, and then just past the half hour mark Alex Jenkins floated a free kick into the danger zone and Boateng got it all wrong and saw the ball sail over his head and into the net, two howlers from the visiting keeper and Manor were now in front.

But, that lead lasted barely a minute as Newham went down the other end and levelled as the brilliant Kone struck home a loose ball into the bottom corner giving Allen no chance at all and it meant this rather frenetic half of football ended all square and leaving us all trying to draw our breathe, it had been a rather breathless half that was for sure.

The hosts then managed to edge ahead just past the hour mark when full back Ben Sargent fired home a loose ball after Jordan Chambers, who put in another brilliant shift for his side, battled away with a defender before managing to get the ball over into Sargent's path, and the hosts had the lead once again, could they hang on this time and take a much needed win.

It certainly looked that way and luck seemed to be on their side after Kone got through and sliced wide, and then Tony Cookey somehow missed when right in front of goal, Manor themselves had moments themselves when they could of wrapped it up but didn't, but then lost Frankis to injury, and this meant the hosts had no one who could hold the ball up at that end of the pitch, and this soon saw the hosts drop deep and invite pressure onto themselves.

This was all happening despite Newham being reduced to ten men in the 78th minute when Joel Appiah was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes after something he said to the linesman, but with a minute of the ninety remaining the visitors grabbed what we thought would be a late point as Louis Hiobi struck a decent effort in off the post, but we were very wrong.

That is because two minutes into stoppage time the still ten men grabbed an extraordinary winner when Reon Ried was fed inside the box to finish beyond Allen and send the visitors wild and see the hosts sink to their knees in disbelief, it was a game they simply could not lose after being 3-2 up with a minute of normal time to go, and also a man up as well, unbelievable, but fair play to the visitors who kept going and got their rewards in the end, making that difficult journey to Southend very worthwhile indeed.

Four defeats in a row for Manor now though, and seventeen goals conceded too, yes they have scored eight goals in that time too but they need to cut out the mistakes at the back if they are to progress any time soon, this defeat will hurt that is for sure, and they need to stop the rot as soon as possible, this after such a good start to the campaign. That toughness I spoke about will certainly needed to be drawn on in their next few games...

Full Time Southend Manor 3 Athletic Newham 4