HORNCHURCH 2 HEYBRIDGE 3

With Donny Barnard and Simon Parker both out injured after Saturday, Frankie Curley came back into the starting line up, after injury, and Ludovic Quistin, signed on loan from Grays, came in for his debut. Urchins made a nervous start when John Purdie’s back pass to Jason Willis stopped short and Willis kicked the ball out. From the throw Hawes hurled the ball into the centre and Goodfellow headed away, the ball being hit hard upfield for Kris Lee to chase, with Morris-Sanders racing out of goal to kick clear. Urchins kicked towards the windmill end, and made most of the running, but then allowed Chris Bourne to run down the left wing and win a corner, Goodfellow cutting the cross out. King took the corner and Styles played the ball out to Dean Green, who touched on to Kris Lee, whose run and cross ended with a corner as Hull deflected the ball out. Andy Tomlinson took the kick and Frank Curley’s header was saved by Morris-Sanders. An enormous throw by Billy Coyne then eluded everyone and went off for a goal kick.

At the other end Crick hit a snap shot wide, before Ross Wall was sent away on the left, and he turned the ball inside to Green and thence on to Lee, with Everett tackling well. Urchins went ahead when a long throw from Billy Coyne led to a huge goalmouth scramble, and ELLIOT STYLES touched home. It was almost a repeat performance when Billy Coyne hurled the ball into the goalmouth a minute later but this time it was headed away. With Urchins applying constant pressure they went further ahead when ROSS WALL ran on to a long through pass and neatly chipped the keeper for the second goal.

Heybridge briefly threatened when a free kick by Hawes was palmed away for a corner, but then Heybridge pulled a goal back following another free kick, which Willis punched out, and the ball fell neatly in front of ADAM BROTHERTON who calmly fired it into the net. Willis was in action again when he had to deal with a long throw by Hawes, but the rest of the half saw Urchins coming forward but without finding a way through a packed defence.

Urchins continued where they left off and Kris Lee sent an excellent pass to Frank Curley which forced Morris-Sanders to rush out to the edge of the area to kick clear, but the match turned when a harmless looking free kick by Hawes was punched up into the air by Willis and the ball dropped neatly for a surprised ROBBIE KING to gratefully poke into the net. Two two, and far from being all over it was now very much game on. Mark Janney came on for Kris Lee, and was soon in action when a long throw by Billy Coyne was played back by Green to Janney, then back to Green, whose shot was turned around the post by a very much in form Morris-Sanders. Tomlinson took the corner and the ball was played back by Janney to Andy whose cross was well saved by Morris-Sanders.

Janney then set off on a solo run which ended in another corner and Tomlinson’s kick was headed powerfully by Styles, forcing Morris-Sanders into another good save. Ludovic Quistin was rapidly gaining in confidence at left back and began to control the game from the left side, and an excellent through ball to Green saw Dean’s centre saved yet again by a very alert keeper. Dave Sadler came on for Curley and Urchins moved to a 4-3-3 formation, with Wall and Green joining Sadler up front. Quistin almost got onto the score sheet with a good run and shot which skimmed the post, and a Janney run saw the ball deflected out for a corner, with the keeper punching away Tomlinson’s inswinging kick. A Quistin centre was headed away, and although Heybridge briefly threatened, and won a corner, they were content to defend, until the third minute of stoppage time, when a long ball out of defence saw substitute STEVEN BOURNE cut in from the left and fire the ball home for the winning goal.