MATCH REPORT
23 September 2006
Essex Olympian League
Senior Division Cup - Round 2
Shell Club Corringham 0 v Epping 2
Epping made the long journey to Corringham to face Shell Club in the 2nd round of the league cup on Saturday, looking to build on their unbeaten start to the season. Manager Neil Whitbread had to make changes with Phil Bulled, Billy Saunders and Ash Conlan being unavailable, giving him the opportunity to bring in Olly King for his 1st team debut and put John Tama back in the starting line-up in place of Conlan. Tom Scriven also made a welcome return to the 1st team fold for the first time this season. As expected, the home side sought to force the issue for the first 15 minutes but Epping weathered the storm well and before long had established a two goal lead through classic counter attacking football. Their opening goal came after good work from Leon Rolle and Tama saw the ball crossed for Adam Connolly to bravely head home under pressure from Shell keeper Walshe. Epping's second came when Jim Ellice broke through the midfield and played Connolly in who took the ball round the keeper and finished coolly for his and Epping's second to establish a 2 goal lead at half-time. Epping continued to control the game for the first period of the second half but failed to increase their lead. This almost proved costly as they allowed Shell Club to come back into the game and it was only the brilliance of Epping keeper Jonathan Thomas, with two acrobatic saves, that kept the scoreline at 2-0, enabling Epping to go through to another away tie at the winners of Canning Town/Potter Street. Manager Whitbread said "This was a potential banana skin for us and I told the boys that they needed to be professional in their approach to the game and to be fair, apart from a period in the second half where we stepped off the gas, they responded in the right way and overall we were good value for the win. At the end of the day, it was all about getting the result and making sure we made it to the next round, as far as I'm concerned it's job done. I was delighted with the performance and attitude of the boys that came in and given me a nice selection headache for next week."
Team: Thomas, King, Scriven, Hopkins, Costello, Taaffe, Connolly, Annobil, Rolle, Ellice, Tama.
Subs: Bailey, Geraghty, Wells.
Scorer: Connolly 2.
EPPING FOOTBALL CLUB, STONARDS HILL, TIDYS LANE, EPPING