FA Trophy First Round
Tilbury 1 v 0 Hadley
Report by Mason Hutchinson
Following a much-needed three points in the league over high-flying Wroxham, it was back to FA Trophy action for The Dockers, as we hosted fellow step 4 side, Hadley. Today was the start of a new era, with George Christou and Jack Toghli taking charge of their first match. New signing,
Tobias Braney, made his debut as he started in place of the cup-tied Hassan Nalbant.
The Bricks made a better start to the game, coming close to opening the scoring through Lenny Asamoah, who raced through on goal, but blazed his effort over the crossbar.
Hadley was then awarded a penalty after 15 minutes when Richard Ennin was brought down by Sam Carter just inside the 18-yard box. Captain, Luke Alfano stepped up for the visitors, but he fired his spot-kick wide of the target.
This pressure continued throughout the first half, as a deep corner was whipped in towards Lenny Asamoah, who directed his header goalward. However, Harry Fairs dived across brilliantly to keep the scoreline level.
Lenny Asamoah was involved once again when Hadley put the ball in the net on the stroke of half-time. But the linesman was quick to raise his flag, and the goal was ruled out.
Following the break, Tilbury began to grow into the game and created chances of their own to worry the Hadley defence. Tobias Braney set the ball across brilliantly to Kieran Jones, who saw his strike from the edge of the area, whistle past the near post.
The deadlock was finally broken after 49 minutes, and the goal went the way of The Dockers.
Medo Konte’s shot from just inside the area was blocked, and the ball bounced out to the right- hand side, where Tyler Forbes was waiting. Forbes drilled his attempt low, and the ball struck the post and rolled across the face of goal before finally crawling over the line. Kieran Jones did fire home to make sure, but from the celebration, we think it’s Tyler’s goal.Late on in the game, Hadley threw men forward in hopes of sending the tie to penalties, but they didn’t manage to test Harry Fairs or find a way past the defence, which displayed a fantastic second-half performance.
That was all of the action at Chadfields, and George and Jack were off to ways, as we sailed into the second round.
The Dockers are back in action on Tuesday 28th October when we host Braintree Town in the BBC Essex Senior Cup.
SQUAD: Fairs, Reeve, Hayes ©, Phillips, Konte, Carter (Brocklebank), Reynolds, Jones
(Spooner), Forbes (Aderibigbe), Trendall, Braney (Akintunde).
SUBS UNUSED: Ward.
GOAL: Tyler Forbes.
