Southend Manor 2 Buckhurst Hill 3

Essex Senior Cup First Round, Tuesday 2nd November

I was over Southchurch Park on Tuesday night to see Thurlow Nunn South high flyers Buckhurst Hill knock Essex Senior League strugglers Southend Manor out of the Essex Senior Cup, setting up a home second round tie against ESL high flyers Walthamstow.

Despite the hosts being a league above their opponents, many thought this would be a comfortable passage through to the next round for the visitors, Manor had lost nine in a row and were near the foot of the ESL table, whilst Hill had only lost once in the league all season and had won eleven out of fourteen netting plenty of goals in the process.

And it certainly seemed it was going to pan out this way early on as Buckhurst Hill found themselves two goals up after seventeen minutes, taking the lead after twelve minutes when a superb cross from the left by Keaton Moore found Fehinti Falola whose close range header was too powerful for Manor keeper Jack Allen to keep out, and then doubling this lead five minutes later when a great pass from Sam Sollosi released Moore in down the left, and he duly slotted inside the near post.

Manor responded in the 19th minute though as a cross from the left was swung in and saw visiting keeper Daniel Blockley misjudge the flight of the ball and see if go over his head and hit Manor attacker Isaac Acquah in the chest and roll over the line, but the visitors didn't take too long to restore their two goal cushion as just before the half hour mark as a lovely pass by Tyler Dolan found Falola whose deflected finish found the net.

Manor had a golden chance to reduce the arrears before the break though when Luka Frankis was bundled over inside the box, but Frankis saw his spot kick saved by Blockley before a follow up effort from Izaih Antione was brilliant saved by the Buckhurst stopper, and it meant the visitors maintained their two goal cushion going into the break. Frankis also limped off with a hamstring strain soon after too so it hadn't been a brilliant half for the home side.

The second half saw Manor fight back somewhat though and just past the hour mark reduced the arrears when after Blockley had blocked an effort from Antoine, Acquah followed up to loft over the keeper who was on the floor and into the unguarded net. Hill were furious though wanting an offside flag that never came, and there protests resulted in a couple of bookings for dissent (no sin bins in this tournament otherwise they could have lost some to that perhaps).

This seemed to affect the visitors a little thereafter for a time, and Manor had a decent spell where they were putting a lot of pressure on them and chasing an equaliser and perhaps take the tie to penalties, but once Hill had weathered that storm and regathered themselves, they looked for a killer fourth, and were playing on the break towards the end.

Two such attacks saw home keeper Allen take out an attacker on the edge of the box, resulting in two fairly quick yellows (there was a good argument the first one was a straight red) and an early bath for the Manor stopper, meaning centre half Jordan Faulkner donned the gloves for the final few minutes, and the visitors managed to see out the remainder of the time allocated to take their place in the next round.

Manor had certainly made Hill work hard for that win, and had certainly got into the visitors faces more in the second period, whilst Hill really had to grind and graft for that win, especially second period, but they are through and that is all they will care about, Walthamstow next week at home, should be a good one under the lights at Roding Lane.

Full time Southend Manor 2 Buckhurst Hill 3