Essex County Cup Quarter Finals.

Billericay Town U18s  3  - 1 Tilbury Town U18s  (a.e.t)

Paul Moody & Co U18s endorsed a great team achievement today by booking their place in the Semi Finals of the Essex County Cup in what was a great performance played with great spirit in very difficult conditions.

Both teams to their credit started the game trying to play flowing football in quite difficult playing conditions with the Blues coming the closest of the two in breaking the deadlock when in the first half a header from Billy Radley rebounded off the inside of the post on 17 minutes. In the second half both teams had chances to settle the tie with Brodie Horne and Bradley Hooper going the closest for the hosts. At the other end Blues keeper Jamie Sorrell was also kept busy by pulling off some fine saves to deny the visitors the win.

Extra time started and it was now a case of who wanted the win more!With plenty of gaps now emerging all around the pitch due to both teams tiring from putting in a endless 90 minutes, it was only a matter of time before the deadlock would be eventually broken. That break came in the 100th min when a fine run down the left wing from the Tilbury substitute opened up the Blues defense like a hot knife followed by a perfect cross across the Blues goal mouth leaving a simple tap in from the oncoming Tilbury striker scoring from close range.

The Blues were then dealt another blown when they were reduced to just 10 men, as Danny Janes receiving his second yellow card for a tried but late challenge, but instead of crumbling this seemed to drive the Blues on! Mins later and following a quick throw in, Alex Kent broke the back line with some cleaver footwork to run clean through onto goal and unselfishly pulled the ball back for Horne to fire home from 9 yards. Blues now continued to press and were awarded a free kick after a fantastic run from Luke Snoad resulted in him being felled by a Tilbury defender, this in turn resulted in Bradley Hooper stepping up to float a pinpoint cross for Radley to rise above his marker and plant his header into the top corner of the net in the 115^th minute. Instead of sitting back, Billericay looked to put a truly worthy and strong Tilbury side to the sword, which they finally did following a 30 yard run from Radley who then passed to Horne who found himslef with time to take a touch and smash the ball home. For the second week now in a row the U18s has defeated a team topping their division as well as booking their second Cup Semi Final!  Also credit must be given to a very good footballingTilbury side, making this a truly great Cup-tie.

TEAM: Jamie Sorrell, Jack Shepherd, Luke Snoad, Tom Vickers, Danny Janes, Billy Radley, Lewis Pether (Sam Burton ), Bradley Hooper, Billy Shulver (Kane Branson),  Jake Swift (Alex Kent), Brodie Horne