Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round

Aveley 0 Potters Bar Town 2

Basildon United 2 Whitton United 1

Bowers & Pitsea 1 Barking 0

Cheshunt 1 Canvey Island 0

Coggeshall Town 0 Witham Town 0

FC Romania 2 Grays Athletic 0

Faversham Town 4 Hackney Wick 1

Felixstowe & Walton United 0 Walthamstow 1

Great Wakering Rovers 4 Leyton Athletic 1

Haringey Borough 1 Stanway Rovers 0

Haverhill Rovers 2 Maldon & Tiptree 1

Hertford Town 5 Tilbury 3

Heybridge Swifts 3 West Essex 0

Long Melford 3 St. Margaretsbury 1

Romford 3 Baldock Town 2

Saffron Walden Town 4 Hoddesdon Town 1

Waltham Abbey 0 Bury Town 2

Walthamstow are in Monday’s 1^st Qualifying Round draw after a battling away win at Felixstowe & Walton United. James Peagram scored the all-important goal that won it for the ESL side in the 17^th minute. Saffron Walden Town are also in the hat after they came through their all-ESL Preliminary match-up with Hoddesdon Town. Craig Calver, Greg Strong, Ryan Fleming and the always seems to be scoring of late Charlie Portway scored a goal each for the Bloods; Alex Warman provided the Hoddesdon goal in a game watched by a crowd of 293 people. The other all-ESL tie saw Takeley knock out local rivals Stansted. A solitary Mitchell Das goal was enough to put his side into the next round. Sporting Bengal United will at least know who they could meet in the 1^st Qualifying Round by the time Wednesday’s replay at Mile End Stadium comes around. A wonderful goal from Steven Carvell in the 20^th minute gave the Bengal Tigers a deserved lead, and they had plenty of chances to extend that lead throughout the rest of the game. Sadly that inability to get a second goal came to hurt the East London outfit as Harry Doyle was able to swivel and fire home an equaliser in the 65^th minute. Sporting Bengal can take credit for the way they dominated much of the play against their Bostik North rivals but must also be rueing not taking all their chances; still they have a second attempt in midweek with their Cup dream still alive. The same cannot be said for Leyton Athletic who made a quick return to last season’s ESL Champions Great Wakering Rovers and were promptly set packing with a 4-1 defeat. Stephen Butterworth rifled home a penalty in each half, with Simon Jones and Jason Ring also providing goals in the second half. Dwade James did actually level up for Leyton in the 20^th minute but in the end they succumbed to the same score line as they had done when they visited Rovers on League business last April.

West Essex travelled up to Heybridge Swifts but were gunned down by Jody Brown’s men inside the opening 45 minutes. Matthew Price opened the Swifts account in the 8^th minute; Samuel Bantick then doubled that lead in the 17^th minute; which was then further extended when Price added another goal to his tally via a penalty. Stanway Rovers also gave a good account of themselves as they bowed out to Haringey Borough, recent ESL Champions but now mixing it in the Premier Division of the Bostik League. Stanway finally succumbed to a Chinedu McKenzie goal in the 69^th minute. Hullbridge Sports were knocked out in even more heartbreaking fashion as Dan Okah fired them into a 40^th minute lead that they held onto until the 82^nd. Shaun Avis having brought the tie level then inflicted even more hurt on Hullbridge as he scored Newmarket Town’s winner deep into stoppage time. And St. Margaretsbury’s FA Cup run is also over for another year after they were beaten 3-1 by Long Melford. The hosts scored their goals via Anthony Waugh, Hassan Ally and Steve Adams. Tom Cowell notched the St. Margaretsbury consolation in the closing stages of the game.

Bowers & Pitsea booked their place in the next round on Friday evening with a 1-0 win over Barking, with Jamie Dicks scoring the game’s only goal in the 37th minute. Witham Town host Coggeshall Town on Tuesday after their original game ended in a goalless draw. There were two games played at Parkside Stadium on Saturday but both landlord and tenant crashed out of the FA Cup. At midday Grays Athletic took on FC Romania, with the ‘home drawn’ club, in this case FC Romania registering a 2-0 win with Gabriel Ghinea’s 21^st minute goal being added to in the 84^th minute by Bejenari Vadim.  Then at 3pm Aveley took on Potters Bar Town, and immediately found themselves trailing as Dernell Wynter had the ball in the back of the Millers net inside the opening minute. Bradley Sach then added another midway through the first half and that was the end of Aveley’s FA Cup campaign for the season. Tilbury also crashed out after managing to equalise three times before finally succumbing 5-3 to Hertford Town. The Dockers fell behind to a Dave Keenleyside penalty in the 4^th minute but Tom Anderson levelled up ten minutes later. Hertford were then back in from courtesy of a Ben Ward-Cochrane goal in the 26^th minute but this time they only held the lead for four minutes until Hussain Jaffa brought Tilbury back on level terms. Ward-Cochrane fired Hertford into a 3-2 lead just before the break, but Tilbury again found an equaliser, this time via Lewis Smith who found the net in the 54^th minute. Tommy Wade then scored to give Hertford Town the lead for the fourth time in the game and that lead was then extended two minute later when George Beattie wound-up the scoring and with it the game.

Hackney Wick from the Eastern Senior League were turned over by Faversham Town who registered a 4-1 victory. Two other Essex teams came unstuck against Suffolk opposition as Haverhill Rovers snuffed out Maldon & Tiptree’s FA Cup dream with a 2-1 victory, meanwhile Waltham Abbey may have had home advantage but it came to count for nothing as Bury Town went on to win the game 2-0. Jason Hallett’s 28^th minute goal for Cheshunt was enough to see them through at the expense of Canvey Island.  Basildon United were trailing to a Liam Wales goal that saw Whitton United go in leading 1-0 at the break. The Bees struck twice in quick succession in the second half though to make sure their team progresses. Thomas Barton fired home the equaliser in the 58^th minute and then two minutes later Remi Nelson provided Basildon United with the lead which they held onto until the end to book their place in Monday’s draw. Romford will also be in the velvet bag after they played their game against Baldock Town on Sunday and having seen a number of Essex teams fall decided not to join them by winning their tie 3-2. Baldock took a 13^th minute lead via Kim Forsythe but six minute later and Kurt Smith had equalised and then the same player rifled home a penalty just before the break to give Boro a 2-1 lead. Liam Kenna levelled the tie in the 62^nd minute but there was late drama as Roddy Lemba scored the winning goal for Romford from the penalty spot in the final minute.