Heybridge Swifts 1 Hornchurch 1

[Urchins]

We dominated the first 20 minutes of this game to such an extent that you might have thought Heybridge were on for a heavy defeat. The Heybridge defence had to deal with wave after wave of attack and were perhaps fortunate not to concede to a Jamie Southon header from a John Martin free kick after 7 minutes and a 20 yard effort from Steve West on 13 minutes which flashed across goal. Heybridge pulled themselves back into the game for a spell but the attacks came again in the last 10 minutes of the half. Andrew Martin headed narrowly over from a John Keeling cross on 35 minutes, but we opened the scoring 5 minutes before the interval. A Scott Gooding free kick floated to the far post was headed back across goal over keeper Darren Placid where Vinnie juggled the ball to keep it in and John Keeling volleyed the ball home.

 

The second half could not have been more different. After a couple of early chances for us - a John Martin shot from 25 yards 2 minutes in and an Andrew Martin header from a John Martin free kick 3 minutes later just too high again - Heybridge began to take hold of the game after which they never really lost control. Their equaliser came in the 55th minute. A corner was rolled to the edge of the penalty area where Lee Kersey drilled home a low shot. Heybridge always looked dangerous after that with Kevin Budge seeing a shot from the corner of the area dip just over on 63 minutes and Daniel Gay having to stretch to save from Christopher Keeble on 66 minutes. George Borg made some changes just after that - new signing Danny Kerrigan coming on for Andrew Martin and Andy Findlay (who was also replaced by Danny Cowley 10 minutes later) coming on for Scott Gooding - which seemed to perk the side up, but even so the final whistle was met with some relief.

 

Line-up:- Gay, Gooding (Findlay 75 (Cowley 85)), J Martin, Adedeji, West, Southon, Keeling, Sterling, John, A Martin (Kerrigan 66), McGowan. Subs not used: Marsden, Collier (GK).