East Thurrock United 1–0 Concord Rangers

(Agyemang 29’)

From the FutureFuel Stadium

Essex Senior Cup quarter-final

A SINGLE goal was enough for East Thurrock United to beat Concord Rangers and advance into the Essex Senior Cup semi-finals.

Montel Agyemang scored a fine solo effort to send John Coventry’s team through.

Rocks were without top scorer and talisman Sam Higgins and it was his replacement that should have scored the first goal of the night. But Calvin Ekpiteta struck over the crossbar when he should have hit the target.

Femi Akinwande had the first Concord opportunity but his neat juggling in the penalty area ended with a strike that was saved by Lukas Lidakevicius.

The same man saw a strike pushed away by the Rocks stopper shortly afterwards, with Lewis Knight hitting the post from the resulting corner.

However, it was East Thurrock that struck first.

On the half hour, Agyemang burst from deep, leaving Steve King on the seat of his pants a neat stepover. Although his initial shot was saved by Louis Wells he finished the rebound with aplomb.

A sprawling save from Wells kept out Harry Phipps as the hosts grew into the clash but there was just one goal in it at the break.

Fifteen minutes into the second period, a goal-line clearance from the Beach Boys’ Kyron Farrell denied Max Cornhill a certain second goal.

But it should have been all square with 10 minutes to go. A defence-splitting pass found the run of Akinwande but when one-on-one the striker could only blaze wide of the target.

East Thurrock United: Lidakevicius, Sammons, Burns, Clark, M.Ekpiteta, Phipps, Agyemang, Cornhill, C. Ekpiteta (Sampayo 88’), Honesty, Smith

Concord Rangers: Wells, Smith, Brown, Lee, King, Knight, Greenhalgh, Nasha, Akinwande, Cawley, Greenhalgh