Essex Olympian Senior League Cup Semi Final, Wednesday 24th April
Wednesday night saw me over at Garon Park for the first of the two semi finals of the EOFL Senior League Cup, and it saw the top two of the Premier Division do battle once again as Old Southendian hosted Rayleigh Town for a place in the final against either Wakering Sports or Corinthians who will do battle in an all Division One clash at the weekend over at Cupid's Country Club in Wakering.
This competition began back in October with eight first round ties, here is a full look at the results in the tournament so far and how the four semi finalists ended up at this stage and playing for a place in the final:-
First Round
BKS Sports 0 Galleywood 3
Burnham Ramblers Reserves 2 Collier Row 2 (Burnham Ramblers Reserves won 5-4 on penalties)
Herongate Athletic 1 Roydon 0
Leytonstone United 2 Pitsea Town 1
Manford Way 3 Hutton Reserves 1
Pitsea Athletic 6 Emerson & Upminster 0
Shoebury Town 2 Leigh Town 2 (Leigh Town won 3-2 on penalties)
Wakering Sports 7 Beacon Hill Rovers 2
Second Round
Bishop's Stortford Swifts 0 Harold Wood Athletic 2
Corinthians 2 Sungate 1
Herongate Athletic 2 Hashtag United Development 0
Hullbridge Sports Reserves 1 Takeley Development 8
Kelvedon Hatch 5 Burnham Ramblers Reserves 0
Leigh Ramblers 3 Canning Town 2
Leigh Town 0 Harold Hill 2
Leytonstone United Vs Runwell Sports (Home Walkover win for Leytonstone United)
Manford Way 2 Galleywood 0
May & Baker A 10 AS Rawreth 1
Old Chelmsfordians 3 Basildon Town Reserves 0
Old Southendian 2 Springfield 2 (Old Southendian won 9-8 on penalties)
Pitsea Athletic 1 Catholic United 7
Rayleigh Town 2 Epping Town 0
Shenfield AFC 1 Wakering Sports 2
Toby 0 ACD United 5
Third Round
Corinthians 2 Catholic United 1
Herongate Athletic 2 ACD United 3
Leigh Ramblers 0 Old Chelmsfordians 0 (Old Chelmsfordians won 3-2 on penalties)
Leytontone United 0 Harold Hill 4
Manford Way 1 Harold Wood Athletic 1 (Harold Wood Athletic won 10-9 on penalties)
May & Baker A 0 Rayleigh Town 1
Old Southendian 4 Kelvedon Hatch 0
Takeley Development 3 Wakering Sports 4
Quarter Finals
Corinthians 3 Harold Wood Athletic 1
Harold Hill 0 Old Southendian 5
Rayleigh Town 4 ACD United 0
Wakering Sports 4 Old Chelmsfordians 0
Semi Finals
Old Southendian Vs Rayleigh Town
Wakering Sports Vs Corinthians
Tonight's semi finalists both began their runs in the Second Round after byes, OS almost didn't make it past their first stage, needing penalties to see off fellow Premier Division side Springfield in a shootout that ended 9-8, but then cruised through their next two rounds netting nine and conceding none in games against Premier Division Kelvedon Hatch and then Division One Harold Hill.
Rayleigh themselves netted a 2-0 home win over Division One side Epping Town before they squeezed past another Division One outfit in the shape of May & Baker A, and they then met another Division One side, ACD United, in the Quarter Finals and cruised to a 4-0 win in that one to set up tonight's Semi Final.
Wakering Sports, who play in Saturday's tie, were the only ones to start in the First Round, and the runaway Division One leaders saw off fellow Division One side Beacon Hill Rovers in devastating fashion with a 7-2 win before stunning Premier Division Shenfield AFC away in the following round. They then saw off Division Three leaders Takeley Development in seven goal thriller before they thrashed Premier Division Old Chelmsfordians at home to set up their semi final contest.
That contest is against Corinthians who have seen off no fewer than three Premier Division sides on route to the final, all of them at home, defeating both Sungate & Catholic United by the same score line of 2-1, and then they beat Harold Wood Athletic in the Quarter Finals 3-1 to set up their all Division One semi final at Cupid's, which will be the first tie they have played away from home in this season's tournament.
That contest is to come in three days time, for now, let's concentrate on tonight's mammoth semi final tie between the top two in the Premier Division at Garon Park, now the two have met twice in the league this season, Rayleigh netting a 2-1 win at Garons back in late October, which was the last time OS were beaten in ninety minutes this season, the only loss they had since then was a penalty shoot out defeat in the Premier Cup, and they won at Rayleigh recently 2-0 to end Town's long winning run in the division too.
With both sides still in with a chance of winning the title in the Premier Division, would this game be a hindrance for either? Rayleigh's number one target this season is promotion to Senior Football, which they would guarantee by finishing above third placed Sungate, they had a six point cushion to them with three matches to go, so they may have seen this game as a bonus but no doubt probably wanted some more silverware to go for, they are already in the Essex Premier Cup Final of of course too. So, would they want another game to play on top of the ones remaining already, this competition was bottom of their priorities right now.
OS had two league games remaining and trailed Rayleigh by two points knowing that their chances of league glory were slowly dispersing, especially if the leaders won their game in hand, so this competition could well be their only shot at silverware this season, so they may have been more up for winning this semi final, who knows, but we would soon find out as the latest instalment of OS Vs Rayleigh took place.
The opening half hour was pretty subdued if truth be told, which kind of said a lot in terms of this competition and where both sides priorities laid perhaps, the hosts best chance in the opening half hour fell to winger Neil Maclean who burst in down the right but saw his effort well saved by Josh Hudson, whilst down the other end Rayleigh's Nathan Scarborough fired an effort narrowly wide, but chances were at a premium up till that point if truth be told.
With eight minutes left of the half though, Rayleigh got their noses in front, Ben Baxter received the ball on the right hand side before cutting inside onto his left foot and curling a lovely effort across goal into the far top corner, and it meant the visitors held a slender half time advantage. Could the hosts respond in the second period?
They most certainly did, and after building up a head of steam, they managed to equalise with twenty minutes to go when a ball into the box found Connor Burrows who thundered home a close range header to deservedly bring the hosts back to parity, and then with twelve minutes to go Old Boys had turned the tie around when Mitch Ali curled home a lovely free kick into the bottom corner.
Suddenly the visitors were now the ones having to chase the game, but they never really threatened the hosts goal and OS saw the game out to take their place in the final and give themselves a chance of silverware on two fronts with a handful of games remaining in their season, they definitely deserved the win after a superb second half showing, and Rayleigh would be the first ones to acknowledge this too, they were below par in this one, especially in the second period.
Rayleigh have bigger things to achieve for the remainder of their season, but tonight would have been a disappointment for them, for OS though it's a final to look forward too in May at Heybridge Swifts FC against either Wakering Sports or Corinthians, that's is then but they now have two league games to try and get maximum points and overturn Rayleigh's lead at the top, be interesting to see how the final few weeks pan out for sure.
Full time Old Southendian 2 Rayleigh Town 1
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