Manuel 110

Thurrock retained the Essex Senior Cup with a hard fought victory over Ridgeons Eastern Counties League Premier side Halstead Town. Thurrock started the brighter and Adam Parker seemed to be bossing the game from midfield in the early stages. Halstead were dogged and made it difficult for Fleet to get behind the back line. Despite Fleet having the majority of the possession and pressure it was Halstead who had the first chance to take the lead when their centre forward blasted wide from 15 yards when a square ball would have left a simple tap-in at the far post. After half an hour Thurrock seemed to be bogged down but all of a sudden let their class show. Danny Shipp crossed to Kris Lee whose lay off found Parker who scored, only to see the goal chalked off for an offside decision. Lee seemed to be getting more into the game and was unlucky when his shot was well saved a minute later. After 38 minutes Lee flicked a ball through to Shipp, whose shot went wildly over the bar. Thurrock went close at the end of the half when Lee Hodges’ drive was cleared off the line from Dave Collis’ clever corner.

Colin McBride made two substitutions at half time, replacing Kris Lee and Johnny Buffong with Fernando Manuel and Richard Goddard and switching to a 5-3-2 formation. Thurrock were quiet up until the hour mark and were then unlucky with three chances going begging in a minute. Parker was unlucky with a header that was brilliantly tipped wide and then Hodges’ 25 yard free kick was tipped wide for another corner. From that corner Manuel blasted over from eight yards out. The game didn’t offer much as it meandered towards extra time, with only a second yellow card and therefore subsequent red for one of Halstead’s midfielders.

The first half of extra time passed by with little incident, only Manuel and Shipp failing to convert a scrambled chance from Mark Goodfellow’s cross. Goodfellow was coming into the game more and more at wingback as Thurrock spread the game with the ten men tiring. It was his cross that the Halstead goalie failed to hold that gave Manuel the easy task of slipping the ball into the open goal to give Thurrock the lead. A minute later another Goodfellow cross found Shipp, whose shot was cleared off of the line. It didn’t matter as Thurrock held on for captain Jimmy McFarlane to lift the enormous trophy

Man of the Match: Mark Goodfellow

Thurrock: Woodman, Collis, Purdie McFarlane©, Goodfellow, Heffer, Parker, Hodges (Walsh 118), Buffong (Manuel 45), Shipp, Lee (Goddard 45).