Non-League and Academy football writer

Step 5 Essex Senior League side Sporting Bengal United faced step 4 side Erith Town, of the Isthmian League South East Division, in an FA Cup extra preliminary round replay, at the Mile End Stadium on Wednesday evening. The match on Saturday had finished 0-0 in south London, but there were plenty of goals in the replay, with Erith Town progressing to the next qualifying stage of the FA Cup, with a 4-2 win.

Sporting Bengal would take the lead in the second minute of this cup tie. A long throw-in, from the right-hand side of the pitch from Tanvir Ahmed, was delivered in to the centre of the Erith penalty area. The ball wasn’t cleared away properly by Erith Town however, with the ball falling for Yousuf Hoque on the left-hand side of the box, and in space. The Sporting player’s powerful low effort would go beyond the Erith goalkeeper and in to the goal, 1-0. Less than ten minutes later, and in similar fashion to Sporting’s opening goal of the game, Erith would equalise. A long throw-in from the right-hand side of the pitch, would find an Erith player in the centre of the Sporting box. A headed effort on goal was well kept out by Laurence Whymark in the Sporting goal, but on hand to finish from close range was Luke Leppard, 1-1.

In what had been a very eventful start to this FA Cup match, Freddy Tandon’s Sporting Bengal side would regain the lead, less than five minutes after Erith had managed to draw level in the tie. Evander Lopes did well to keep in a short forward pass towards the byline, inside the Erith penalty area, before quickly pulling the ball back across to Andre Embalo in the centre of the box. The Sporting forward connected well with the ball, and his first time low effort would find the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, 2-1.

Just before Erith Town had a penalty appeal which was waived away by the referee,  an Erith player would hit an effort over on the bounce from the edge of the Sporting penalty area. The step 4 side would finish the latter stages of the first half really well. First of all and not long before half-time, Erith would draw level once again. Emmanuel Oluwasemo’s powerful deflected effort from the edge of the Sporting penalty area, was deflected in to the path of Mecca Maxime-Samuels, on the left-hand side of the Sporting box. In a bit of space, Maxime-Samuels would hit a powerful low effort across the goalkeeper, and in to the bottom right-hand corner of the goal, 2-2.

Right on the stroke of half-time, Erich Town would crucially take the lead in the tie for the first time. With a well delivered Erith corner-kick towards the back post of the Sporting goal, being met by Aaron Jeffrey, who powerfully headed the ball in to the goal, 2-3. Early on in the second half, following a good counter with the ball which was started by Andre Embalo, the ball was worked in to the Erith box. In the end however, Erith’s goalkeeper Harrison Firth would make a save.

Managing their lead well, Erith Town were impressing when in possession of the ball, and they were making it difficult for Sporting to create goalscoring chances. After the impressive Emmanuel Oluwasemo had got to a long Erith forward pass down to the right-hand side of the Sporting penalty area, he would hit a powerful effort over from a difficult angle, at the goalkeeper’s near post. The visiting side would then go desperately close to making it 4-2. With an Erith player getting to a low cross on the left-hand side of the Sporting penalty area, as his powerful low resulting effort bounced off Laurence Whymark’s left-hand post, before an effort on the follow-up from close range by a teammate, went narrowly wide.

In the 82nd minute of the game Erith Town did make it 4-2. Substitute Tom O’Connor’s excellently taken curling effort (on the bounce) from around 20 yards out, would find the top right-hand corner of the Sporting goal, 2-4. In the final moments of the game, Sporting player Jasan Pauline would curl a good effort from 20 yards out, narrowly over the Erith goal. Sporting Bengal started this game well, taking the lead so early on, and overall there were some fine performances. For Sporting, I thought that the creative and hardworking Yousuf Hoque was their player of the match, with the youngster starting the game really well. However, I was also impressed with their captain, Damilola Olusesi’s performance, as well as the performance of forward Andre Embalo.

My overall player of the match on Wednesday, was Erith Town player Emmanuel Oluwasemo, who I thought had a really good game, with special mentions also for Aaron Jeffrey and Mecca Maxime-Samuels. Erith Town managed their lead in this tie so well, and they really showed their quality on the ball, and overall they deserved to win the tie. All the best to Erith Town in the next round of the competition.