East Thurrock United 0–2 Chelmsford City

(Giles 11’, Batt 59’)

From the FutureFuel Stadium

Essex Senior Cup semi-final

EAST Thurrock United were undone again by old adversaries Chelmsford City as they crashed out of the Essex Senior Cup.

Goals in each half means it will be the Clarets that play either Billericay Town or Romford in the final.

Rocks were looking to hit back having been beaten in the final of last year’s competition by Chelmsford.

And they should have led after just three minutes. After Sam Higgins had volleyed wide after beating the offside trap, the striker teed up Max Cornhill with a superb right wing cross but his header from five yards was skewed off target.

And Chelmsford made the hosts pay with their first attempt on target. Jonathan Giles darted inside Michael Clark and fired a fierce left-footed strike across goalkeeper Lukas Lidakevicius.

Bagasan Graham missed a golden chance to double the lead following some sloppy work in midfield by Lewis Smith, shooting wide when one-on-one, as the game continued to ebb and flow.

Higgins unusually wasted another chance after getting past goalkeeper Jake Jessup, but back came Chelmsford.

A dinked free-kick into the penalty area was flicked towards his own goal by James White and it clipped the top of the bar on its way over.

Into the second half, Chelmsford extended their lead on the hour mark. Good wing play by Graham found substitute Shaun Batt at the far post and he headed beyond Lidakevicius and into the goal.

And Chelmsford were able to see the game out relatively comfortably, although Higgins did rattle the crossbar in the final five minutes.

East Thurrock United: Lidakevicius, Sammons, Clark, Burns, M. Ekpiteta, White (Agyemang 83’), Harris, Cornhill, Higgins, Smith, Phipps (Richardson 57’)

Chelmsford City: Jessup, Omozusi, Braham-Barrett, Miles (Davies 78’), Spillane, Haines, Giles, Church, Barnard (Batt 46’), Oyenuga (Johnson 70’), Graham