Thurrock 3–0 Chatham Town

From Ship Lane

FA Trophy first qualifying round

 

THREE goals in nine second-half minutes was enough for Thurrock to earn their place in the second qualifying round of the FA Trophy.

Fleet beat Chatham 3-0 at Ship Lane, with David Cowley, Charlie Stimson and Jordan Clark on the mark for the hosts.

Fleet went into the game against the side from the Ryman One South as favourites, with Chatham struggling at the foot of their division.

The first-half saw Cowley shoot over, before a neat exchange of passing between Lewwis Spence and Reece Morgan saw the former glance a header wide of the post.

Stimson tested Chatham stopper Ryan Nicholls as the half went on, with Rhys Madden having to be at his best to preserve his clean sheet soon after.

The opening goal came on the hour mark and it was Cowley who found the net. Moements after he was denied, Cowley was picked out in the box by Remi Sutton top open the scoring.

Stimson added a second five minutes later, having burst from the edge of his own penalty area to drill home the loose ball from Ross Wall's effort.

Clark made sure from the penalty spot with 20 minutes remaining, after Keke Orth was brought down.

After the match, Stimson said: "The aim was to get into the next round and we did this with a good 3-0 win. In the second-half we upped the tempo and quality and created many more chances."

Thurrock: Madden, Morgan, L Clark, Toner, Sutton, J Clark, Goode (Orth), Spence, Stimson, Wall (Gleed), Cowley