East Thurrock United 4-4  Chelmsford City

(Chelmaford City win 5-3 on penalties)

Brentwood Town 0-2  Waltham Abbey

Billericay Town 2-3  Chesham United

Dagenham & Redbridge 1-1  Exeter City

Southend United 1-2  Aldershot Town

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Final penalty score: East Thurrock United 3-5 Chelmsford City Anthony Cook with the decisive penalty.  What a game.  Unbelievable.  Magical.

Thank you for sharing this magnificent event with me.  Enjoy yourself, and your football.

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3-4

2-4

2-3

1-3

1-2

0-2

Newby misses.

0-1

For the sake of clarity I will do the scores, no chat, just scores.

EXTRA TIME FULL TIME:  Penalties!

121st min – GOAL! ….. EAST THURROCK UNITED 4,  Chelmsford City 4.  No pretence of impartiality.  KRIS NEWBY.  25 yard shot.  Roof of the net.  I want your babies

The best FA Cup game I’ve ever seen.  Bar none.

120th min – Oh, so close.  Reiss Gilbey crosses from the left, Newby heads it.  A foot over.

118th min – Immense, intense East Thurrock pressure.  City are hanging on by their fingertips.

116th min – GOAL! ….. East Thurrock United 3,  CHELMSFORD CITY 4 Here’s your Cup story.  A corner on the right, and ex Rocks playmaker MAX CORNHILL, who scored the own goal equaliser on Satirday, heads home.

What.  A.  Game.

114th min – Kris Newby hits a shot from 30 yards onto the A13.  I think it done it just to get a breather.

111th min – And again East Thurrock reply in kind.  Kris Newby dribbles past a couple of defenders on the left inside the area, and his goalbound shot is superbly saved by Searle.

110th min – Jamie Riley comes to East Thurrock’s rescue.  Anthony Cook uses his trickery inside the area, his shot on the right looks all ends up a goal, but Riley parries superbly.

107th min – The ref almost had an assist there.  A Rocks pass bounces off him into the path of Reiss Gilbey, he puts in Sam Higgins, but Stuart Searle blocks his shot inside the area well.

Extra time half time And Ishmael Welsh replaces Craig Calver for City.  Time to draw breath.

102nd min – GOAL! ….. East Thurrock United 3,  CHELMSFORD CITY 3 Great cross by Anthony Cook, and JAMIE SLABBER puts it away.  Although nobody really knew.

Unbelievable, Jeff.

100th min – Play is held up while treatment is given to a City player.

95th min – GOAL! ….. EAST THURROCK UNITED 3,  Chlemsford City 2 You have to feel sorry for Clarets keeper Stuart Searle.  SAM HIGGINS runs unchallenged on the right, he shoots inside the area, and it somehow slips through Searle’s body into the net.

Who would dare predict what would happen next?

93rd min – Rocks applying the pressure, earning corners and keeping possession in the Clarets half.

Extra Time Kick Off!  Oh yes!

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FULL TIME:  I just don’t believe this.  You just knew that something dramatic could happen, that’s the Rocks way.  But you never believed they would.  Thoroughly deserved, though, on the basis of that awful refereeing decision.   Who’s going to win?  What a daft question!

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93rd min – GOAL! ….. EAST THURROCK UNITED 2,  Chelmsford City 2 I can hardly believe this!  A long ball finds Hakeem Araba.  The Clarets defence simply can’t handle him.  He slipped the ball to SAM COLLINS inside the area, and he scores a sensational equaliser!

Epic.  Absolutely epic.

Injury Time: As a Simmonds shot on the left bye-line flashes across the face of the Rocks goal.  5 to go.

89th min – A long free kick from Kris Newby on the right, Hakeem Araba cushions it to Matt Hall on the edge of the area, but his shot is about a foot over.

87th min – It’s all East Thurrock now, and I can smell something not very nice emanating from some City supporters trousers.  The lino, ironically, spots a Rocks handball, to relieve the pressure.

84th min – Real controversy.  Kris Newby gets clear on the right.  His centre into the area is fast and hard.  A Clarets defender clearly handles the ball.  The ref, incredibly, plays on.  As Joe says, what’s the point of a ref being in the box when he can’t see what everyone else did?

80th min – Ohhhh, so close to an equaliser.  A corner on the right, Hakeem Araba meets it perfectly at the far post, the header looks goalbound, but somehow Stuart Searle gets his hand to it.  Tremendous football.

78th min – And Matt’s first contribution is a yellow card for what was deemed a bad tackle.  The Chelmsford fans screamed for a red card.  It looked ok by me.  So the ref probably had it right, despite the retro 80’s anti ref chants from behind the Bus Stops End goal by the Rocks faithful.

74th min – Rocks getting closer.  Hakeem Araba beat the offside trap but couldn’t quite control the ball.  Then a corner on the right evades everyone but goes just wide of the far post.  Ryan Sammons has gone off for Matt Hall as John Coventry shuffles the pack again

70th min – Oof.  Kris Newby gets a touch of the yellows for a crunching tackle.

Still all to play for.

68th min – And Sam Collins replaces Ross Parmenter for the hosts.  Fairly even at this stage.  Every spectator’s rear end is twitching a bit for different reasons.

65th min – Donovan Simmonds has replaced Rob Edmans for City.  It looked as if Rob had pulled up a few seconds before that.  Blimey, that makes him sound like a Grand National horse.  But he’s had a grand game.  From the horse’s mouth.

63rd min – Back come Chelmsford and an on-target shot inside the area is deflected for a corner.  The ball is nodded home but the lino’s flag was already up for what I suppose was a push.

60th min – Chelmsford are starting to give away one or two silly free kicks.  The nerves are jangling, you know.   Aiden Palmer is booked from the latest one on the right, and from that Hakeem Araba heads about a yard wide at the far post.

56th min – Small signs of the Rocks getting into it.  Hakeem Araba is starting to make a menace of himself and Reiss Gilbey has played one or two decent passes.  Ross Parmenter is also ‘working his socks off’, in the Steve Tilson vernacular.

52nd min – As you can imagine, East Thurrock have tried to fight back, but all that has happened was a long range Reiss Gilbey shot which went well wide of the left hand post.

48th min – GOAL! ….. East Thurrock United 1,  CHELMSFORD CITY 2 Well it has been coming.  Another wonderful Anthony Cook cross wide on the right, found ROB EDMANS inside the six yard box, in a central position, and he couldn’t miss from there.

North face of the Eiger time for the Rocks.

8.50pm – Kick Off! Can we last the 90 minutes, let alone the players?

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HALF TIME:  And breathe.  Once again a magnificent game, albeit almost completely one sided this time.  Chelmsford City will be wondering how on earth they’re not ahead by at least three clear goals as play seems to have been almost entirely in and around the East Thurrock United penalty area.  But again, that’s the Cup.  There will be a few nerves in both camps.

Right, off for a Bovril and an Oxygen tank.  Laters.

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45th min – And that was almost 2-1 to the Rocks.  Exactly the same move.  Newby cross on the right.  Araba header at the far post.  A foot wide.

44th min – Oof, that was almost 2-1 to the Clarets.  Lovely cross on the right from Anthony Cook.  It finds the head of Max Cornhill at the far post, but from eight yards out, it goes wide.

42nd min – Brief respite for the Rocks as they begin to push up just a tad.  Kris Newby tries to deliver a cross on the right but it goes harmlessly over the Manorway End goal.  For the Rocks that’s the most pressure they’ve had since the goal.

39th min – Still attack v defence.  A real brown trouser moment as it looked like Edmans was through on goal again.  But Riley collects.  And the ref blew for offside anyway.  But still, phew.

34th min – A nice cross field pass and nod down finds Dave Rainford in space, but his shot from 20 yards goes just past the left hand post.  The pressure from Chelmsford is relentless at the moment.

32nd min – Just the briefest semblence of the Rocks settling down a bit, but the Clarets are well on top.  Another melee just a minute or go, but was cleared a little less frenzied.

28th min – Been Chelmsford threatening, with their tails obviously up from that goal.  Jamie Riley redeemed himself with a brilliant, low, tip around the far post , and there was another scramble which in the end was dealt with by Riley again.

22nd min – GOAL! ….. East Thurrock United 1,  CHELMSFORD CITY 1 It was coming but it was in the most agonising of ways.  There was a scramble in the six yard box from a corner, a shot came in, it looked like Jamie Riley had it easily covered, but he spilled it, and ROB EDMANS had an easy tap-in.

What a game – again!

18th min – This time it was Anthony Cook causing problems down the right, he gets almost to the bye-line, puts the cross in, and it rebounds off the crossbar before being steered to safety.  Blimey.

16th min – The first signs of Chelmsford menace.  A nice through ball centrally to Rob Edmans just inside the area.  He has a sight of goal momentarily but is well shepherded by Spencer Harrison.  Chelsea are also behind, and as entirely expected, Celtic take the lead in Barcelona.

12th min – An early booking.  Hakeem Araba gets a yellow card for a clumsy rather than malicious tackle.

9th min – An early substitution for the Clarets, Rainford on for Bridges.  Meanwhile, Southend fall behind.  Atmosphere here at Rookery Hill has livened up no end since that goal, understandably.

7th min – Both sides have begun to settle down after that sensational start.  Hakeem Araba has skied one over the bar.  Elsewhere, Man Utd are losing.  Chortle.

44 seconds – GOAL! ….. EAST THURROCK UNITED 1,  Chelmsford City 0 An unbelievably explosive start by the hosts!  They go on the attack down the left from the kick-off, Kye Ruel feeds in SAM HIGGINS, his first shot goes across the face of goal, but isn’t cleared, and his second shot, from 10 yards, goes low into the right hand corner of the net.

Liquid football!

7.48pm – Kick Off! Oh yes!

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7.44pm – The teams come out to generous applause and the odd chant.  Well, what do you expect, we’re odd people.

7.42pm – It’s evident that the Chelmsford supporters are significantly outnumbering the East Thurrock fans.  Not surprising, considering the clubs’ average crowds, and the Rocks didn’t do so badly at Rookery Hill the other week when Maidstone United supporters invaded the place.

7.40pm – While we’re waiting for the teams to come out, we’ve just seen a vid clip, evidently from the far east, where 36 players were sent off after a mass brawl.  Sounds like a typical Friday night in Bas Vegas.  Although one of the punches was so girly the player’s been recruited for a Culture Club tribute band.

7.35pm – It’s strangely subdued tonight, despite the large crowd.  Perhaps the supporters are thinking too much about what might occur.  As Bob Stokoe once said, though, “Enjoy yourselves, and whatever happens, happens.”  As I recall he may have won something.

7.30pm – Joe’s just pointed out the slightly less than perfect state of the pitch.  It looks a bit like a green coloured photocopy when it’s just about to run out of ink.  Pretty flat, though, and no rain as yet, so we should be okay.

7.25pm – Team News For all the visiting fans logging on, welcome.  The Clarets line up is:

1. – Stuart Searle.  2 – Richard Brindley.  3 – Aiden Palmer.  4 – Justin Miller.  5 – Kenny Clark (c).  6 – David Bridges.  7 – Anthony Cook.  8 – Robert Edmans.  9 – Jamie Slabber.  10 – Max Cornhill.  11 – Craig Calver.  SUBS:  12 – Nicolas Bondon.  14 – David Rainford.  15 – Donovan Simmonds.  16 – Adam Tann.  17 – Ishmael Welsh.  18 – Warren Whitely.  19 – Tom Warren.

You may ask why the Chelmsford line-up is written like that (probably not, mind).  Pure ease of reference.  A simple glance and you’ll see the Rocks as vertical and Clarets as horizontal.  And me some way in between in the bar afterwards possibly.

7.20pm – Team News  East Thurrock United bid for glory with:

1.  Jamie Riley

2.  Ryan Sammons

3.  Tom Stephen

4.  Simon Peddie

5.  Spencer Harrison

6.  Ross Parmenter

7.  Kris Newby

8.  Reiss Gilbey  (c)

9.  Sam Higgins

10.  Hakeem Araba.

11.  Kye Ruel

Subs

12.  Sam Collins

14.  Matt Hall

15.  Joe Keith

16.  Marc Gorbell

17.  Richard Wray

So wholesale changes.  Well, it is for Covo.  One.  Jamie Riley in for the injured Richard Wray, who is simply there as standby.  Three internal stitches and 15 stitches around the eyebrow after Saturday’s clash of heads.  Ouch.  Get well soon Richard.

7.15pm – Both teams are limbering up, the floodlights are all on, the crowd is building, but there are other clubs playing tonight.  Here’s how Joe and I have seen their seasons so far.

Lawro and Hansen?  Pah.  Ameteurs, man,

7.05pm – And in the whole wide world of soccerball, Spartak Moscow have beaten Benfica 2-1.  Celtic have an easy one at Barcelona.  And Chelsea and Man. Utd. are in action too, anti-racist t-shirts or not.  I wonder if John Terry has a sense of irony.  There you are, don’t say I ignore all the big time football.  I just don’t take it too seriously.

6.55pm – Elsewhere it’s a busy night for our sides.  Brentwood Town are playing one of their games in hand at the Arena.  Three points would come in handy.  Dagenham and Southend will be looking to get back on track after disappointing weekend defeats.  And Billericay have arranged a friendly to keep the side ticking over after an enforced break due to other clubs cup commitments.

6.50pm – A very good evening from an expectant, vibrant and excited Rookery Hill for part two of this FA Cup battle.

My oh my, what a first game at the weekend.  Shots and headers off the bar, bizarre refereeing, a dramatic end to the 90 minutes, then a sensational end to injury time.  It had everything.

And what a carrot that’s being dangled in front of these sides tonight.  A home time against the Essex representative in Football League One, Colchester United a week on Saturday.

This is what the FA Cup is all about.  I simply cannot wait.

You know the drill.  Refresh the page every few minutes, and the drama, the thrill, the glory and the agony that is the FA Cup will come your way.

GAME ON!