Essex Senior Cup Fourth Round, Monday 11th December
Monday night saw me over at The Len Salmon Stadium, and it brought together Isthmian League Premier side Hashtag United and Vanarama National League South Braintree Town, who were of course the current holders after last season's 1-0 win over then fellow Vanarama National League South Concord Rangers, who of course went onto be relegated that season.
The Tags begin this one well and led after just six minutes on the clock when Alex Teniola prodded home an effort into the roof of the net from close range, and three minutes before the break The Tags doubled their lead when full back Matthew Wooldridge fired an effort at goal and it appeared to be headed straight for keeper Joshua Blunkell, but like Jimmy Anderson in his pomp the ball swung and swerved viciously and totally deceived the batter, I mean the keeper and ended up in the back of the net, much to everyone's surprise.
This meant the visitors had a job to continue their defence of the competition for this season, they had their chances to get back into the contest, and even before the second goal missed an absolute sitter when a goal bound effort was someone kept out when it looked easier to score, and after the break Ted Curd got down well to make a couple of smart stops to prevent the visitors from getting back into the contest.
The Tags though looked dangerous when they attacked themselves, and a brilliant third seemed to all but seal this one, Camilo Restrepo showing the visiting front line how it's done when firing an unstoppable effort in off the bar with aplomb and with just over twenty minutes to go, it seemed done, however The Iron's were then handed a route back into the contest when the hosts gave away a spot kick two minutes later, and this was emphatically converted by Reggie Lambe, giving the away support behind that goal hope.
The only notable action thereafter though saw visitors centre half John White caught in an Ariel dual with an opponent, causing a rather nasty gash above the eye, White was furious and screamed right into the referee's face in dismay, prompting a yellow card for dissent, White ended up leaving the pitch with plenty of claret coming from that wound and ended up in the medical room at the ground afterwards, he was wounded as were the visitors who see their defence of the County Cup ended here this evening as The Tags win through to the Quarter Finals of the competition after what was a very good performance overall against a side ranked a step higher than themselves in the pyramid.
Full time Hashtag United 3 Braintree Town 1
Great match report Peter
ReplyDeletethanks for the kind comment, and thanks for taking the time to read :-)
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