Two goals early in the second give Rocks victory (From Thurrock Gazette)

East Thurrock United have the edge in FA Cup encounter

9:34am Monday 10th September 2012 in Sport

East Thurrock United 2,

Witham Town 0

TWO goals in the opening two minutes of the second-half gave East Thurrock a deserved — if laboured — win against Witham Town in the FA Cup on Saturday, writes James Colasanti. Rocks were on top for most of the game but Witham were a threat from set pieces and looked capable of a smash and grab when the teams went in at 0-0 at the interval at Rookery Hill. But any jitters for the hosts were eased when Kris Newby took advantage of some slack defending seconds into the second half to fire them in front, before skipper Reiss Gilbey killed the tie off seconds later with a header following a mistake from visiting keeper Danny Sambridge. After that Rocks were happy to soak up Witham pressure and hit them on the break, but neither side could find the necessary quality in the final third to alter the score-line.

East Thurrock manager John Coventry, who’s side were knocked out in a televised first-round proper clash with League Two side Macclesfield last year, admitted it was a relief to get their first win of this campaign and said they would love to rekindle the magic of the cup again.

He said: “This time last year we were 3-0 down to North Greenford — a lower level club than Witham — but we got it back to 3-3 and did a proper job on the replay and the rest is history because we ended up in the first round.

“But the FA Cup is full of stories like that so we’ll build on this and hopefully the fact that we’ve got a win with our worst performance of the season will let us kick on.”

For much more see Friday's THURROCK GAZETTE.