Thurlow Nunn League Challenge Cup First Round, Tuesday 4th August
I was over at Southchurch Park to see a Thurlow Nunn League Challenge Cup First Round contest as Southend Manor took on East Thurrock United, the winners would head to Parkside and take on Lymore Gardens in Round Two on 26th August, so who would be the ones to make that trip to Aveley after this evening?
This was Manor's first home game in all competitions this season, two away league games have come and gone so far, a 1-0 loss at Burnham Ramblers (blog here of that if your interested https://pedroslocalfootiefix.blogspot.com/2026/07/burnham-ramblers-1-southend-manor-0.html) was followed by a 1-0 win at Parsloes against Athletic Newham, so bouncing back from that disappointing opening to the season.
East Thurrock Community began their first season at this level with back to back wins, a 2-1 win at FC Baresi was followed up by a come from behind 2-1 win at home to Basildon Town (blog for that one is here https://pedroslocalfootiefix.blogspot.com/2026/07/east-thurrock-community-2-basildon-town.html) before they were brought back down to earth at home to Stansted, losing that one 2-0 at the weekend.
Cup games are always different though, but in no way less important of course, but it was the visitors who started this one the better as Manor were slow out of the blocks, the hosts conceding a poor sixth minute goal after a ball into the box was missed by a defender, allowing Ashton Marson to steal in and prod the ball into the roof of the net from close range.
Ashton then almost doubled his and East Thurrock's tally when hitting the post on the quarter hour mark, but after this Manor did settle a bit and their best effort was a lovely curling effort from Serkan Cihan which didn't find the net courtesy of a brilliant diving stop from visiting keeper Max Seymour, and it meant the visitors held a slender lead going into the break.
The second half started in spectacular style for the home side though as they levelled barely a minute after the restart, East Thurrock were caught napping ball a ball over the top, Charlie Little managed to get to it, and although the chance seemed to have gone, the ball found it's way back to his feet and he duly slotted beyond Seymour to level the tie up at 1-1.
Lewis Rowe then nearly restored the visitors lead by almost sending an overhead kick into the far corner, but Manor seemed a lot more organised in the second period and were a far cry from the early sloppy side that had conceded so early in the first period, and when Kieron Miles was sent to the sin bin for the visitors, they had a chance to take advantage of having a man extra for ten minutes.
Nothing came of this though, Michael Clark then came on for Little in with around twenty five minutes remaining to see if he could make a difference, and with the game seemingly headed for penalties, he was to set up the winner, flicking on for Bill Gipp to run clear of the visiting back line and lob beautifully beyond the advanced Seymour and net an 88th minute winner to send Manor through to Round Two.
That's back to back wins for Manor now in all comps, and a good come from behind win too especially after the poor start they made, East Thurrock Community have now lost back to back games themselves, however this one could have gone either way overall so nothing to be to disappointed about, apart from a late loss of course, but it's still been a decent start to life in Senior Football.
A great win for Manor though, showed character in this one when maybe previous sides might have folded after such a start to the game, but not this one, well played, and a trip to Lymore Gardens awaits them in Round Two in three weeks time.
Full time Southend Manor 2 East Thurrock Community 1
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