Potter Street

17 February 2007

Essex Olympian League

Senior Division Cup - Round 3

Potter Street 3 Epping 1

Epping made the short trip to Harlow for this local derby against in-form Potter Street for the right to meet the winners of the Harold Wood/Hutton tie in the cup quarter-finals. Manager Neil Whitbread had selection headaches on the morning of the game with captain Billy Saunders getting back late from a trip to the States and centre-back Kelvin Taaffe withdrawing on the morning of the match due to illness. This gave a chance for Chris Benn to come into the squad and he took the place of Taafe in the heart of the Epping defence. On a sticky and wet pitch, the home side immediately sought to pressurise the visitors and after 5 minutes they took the lead when an error in the Epping penalty area allowed Mark Pearcy to finish from close range. Potter Street then went on to dominate the first half with Epping not seemingly able to deal with their direct play and Epping were probably fortunate to still be in the game at half-time. The game continued in the same vein for much of the second half although Epping did begin to create a few half-chances, however just when they were perhaps starting to claw their way back into the game Potter Street grabbed their second when Pearcy was allowed to run 20 yards unchallenged and shoot past Epping keeper Jonathan Thomas. The visitors responded when a cross from Ashley Conlan was headed home by Richard Hilson for his first goal in Epping colours. Epping seemed to have a bit of belief with this goal and further chances fell to Hilson, Leon Rolle and Conlan but none were converted. Then with minutes remaining and with Epping pushing on to try and snatch an equaliser, Potter Street put the final nail in the visitors coffin when a cross from the left was met by the head of Chris Grove and his header found the back of the Epping net. Manager Whitbread had no complaints with the result, "I was under no illusion that this was going to be a tough tie and I don't think the result is that great a shock. Potter Street are a strong outfit, particularly on their home patch and they would not look out of place in Senior Division One. Losing Billy and Kelvin on the day of the match was obviously a blow and didn't help our cause but in all honesty we were out-fought and out-played for a majority of the game."