EAST Thurrock United manager John Coventry believes the complacent streak he has seen in his side in recent weeks has now gone ahead of tonight’s Essex Senior Cup semi-final.

Rocks host Thurrock rivals Tilbury in a bid to reach the final of the Essex Senior Cup for the first time in their history.

Saturday’s last-gasp defeat against Hemel Hempstead Town in the National League South could have left Rocks deflated.

But Coventry hopes it has the reverse effect, after a strong second-half display and comeback was punctuated by the injury-time penalty that saw them lose the game 3-2.

“We are raring to go and we showed a big improvement and I was really pleased with that,” said Coventry.

“I saw Wraighty (Tom Wraight) return to excellent form and Higgo (Sam Higgins) work rate was good too.

“But we were so much better and just got stung late on. I feel we turned a little corner in terms of complacency.

“It is exciting to be involved. Now the points that were on offer against Hemel have gone we are focusing on Tilbury and it is a semi-final of a cup competition.

“We are not such a big club that we are going to pie it off and think it doesn’t matter.

“It does matter and when you are playing a game of football you want to win it.”

Tilbury were thumped 6-1 by Thurrock on Saturday but Coventry said he didn’t feel that match would matter come kick-off at the FutureFuel Stadium tonight (kick-off 7:45pm).

He added that the pitch, which was cutting up in places come 5pm on Saturday, would be fine to play on albeit he would not have a large squad to choose from.

“I can make a few changes and if I think I need to make changes in order to win the game then I will do that.

“We don’t have a big squad and we will be without Marvin (Ekpiteta) who played for Concord Rangers in the cup earlier in the season so he is cup-tied.

However, Marvel Ekpiteta is available. He played for Bishop’s Stortford in the Hertfordshire County Cup, which means he is eligible to play in the Essex competition.