Athletic Newham have not been on a good run of late, as mentioned in my match preview. They have not won since a 3-2 penalty victory over Sporting Bengal United in the Errington Cup 2nd Round on 14th January, but from the first half of this match, you wouldn’t have known, as they gave an admittedly off-colour Bridge a bit of a first-half scare, playing some neat football and causing The Bridge quite a few headaches.

Unfortunately for The Kings, they then gave themselves a few headaches at the end of the first half and then into the second and gifted The Bridge the goals that would send our favourite team into the Errington Challenge Cup Semi-Finals.

Some may blame Pep Guardiola for introducing the ‘play out from the back’ blueprint that a lot of teams adopt these days, but Pep has the players to implement that style. Other teams clearly do not!

Just before half-time, the home side undid a lot of their good work when goalkeeper Custodio Junior rolled the ball to Mihail Elenkov, who was quickly closed down by Kamel Sassi, who in turn was brought down in the box by the stranded keeper and The Bridge were awarded a penalty. Billy Willis dispatched the pen. in his usual cool style, sending keeper Junior the wrong way, and The Bridge led 1-0, despite not performing to anything like their true potential in that first forty-five.

Not content with that, the hapless keeper repeated the act in the second half as he played a short ball to his captain George Rankin, who probably didn’t thank him for it, and Kojo Apenteng pounced on it and slotted home number two.

Although The Kings played some nice football in that first half and created some decent chances, it was The Bridge who should have gone in front early on when Billy Willis' free kick was headed away, and Kojo Apenteng crossed for Troy Osei-Bobie to head home, only for Troy to head the ball over the bar. A lucky escape for the home side, who went about the task of creating some chances of their own, with Abdi Ali on target but with no real power and a dangerous-looking free kick, position-wise, sent over the bar by Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed.

Mo Malik, as ever, caused problems with his pace, and had a couple of efforts, one over the bar but also flagged for offside and then forcing a save by keeper Junior. The excellent Eduardo Carvalho hit a free kick straight at Michael Bett, who saved easily. The free kick wasn't the best, but everything else Carvalho did was superb, and he is one of those players who make the game look easy; in fact, he could have been lounging on a sun lounger sipping a pina colada, the way time stood still around him when he was on the ball.

A jinking run by Joao Cruz ended with a deflected shot by Chuks Uzor, and then Connor Hart volleyed a Mo Malik cross over the bar as we began to think the half would end 0-0, and the Hullbridge contingent would have been very happy with that but then Newham gifted The Bridge the opportunity that resulted in the penalty that gave them the 1-0 lead.

Hullbridge nearly had a second when Mo Malik fed Ellis Devereux, who slipped in Kojo Apenteng, but Kojo was just offside, and he got a yellow card for kicking the ball away as the half came to a close.

Determined to make up for the first half deficit, Newham came out intent on getting back in the match, and Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed shot high over the bar soon after the restart, and this was shortly followed by a Emmanuel Osilaja shot that went wide.

For The Bridge, Connor Hart’s effort was on target but saved by Custodio Junior, and just after that, Emmanuel Osilaja should have made it 1-1 from a cross from the right, but he put his chance over the bar from close range. Newham would live to regret that miss as the second ‘Custodio Junior incident’ saw Kojo Apenteng put the Bridge 2-0 up and on their way to the semi-final.

There was a bit of a lull in the game as both teams made substitutions, and then The Bridge made a quick breakaway, and Kamel Sassi hit a shot that went wide, but not to be denied, The Bridge soon had the ball in the net for number three. Ellis Devereux had set George Briton-Watkins up for a chance, but George skewed it wide. Undaunted, when Leo Clark broke forward and fed Ellis, George nicked the ball off him and scored The Bridge third with keeper Junior unable to prevent it squirming into the corner of the net.

Leo Clark picked up a yellow, and from the resultant Mervy Luzolo free kick a shot went over the bar. Sorry, couldn’t quite see who the shot came from!

With time running out, The Bridge were in control of the game and breaking forward when they could, and the tireless Ellis Devereux dragged a shot across goal, and it deflected wide. Ellis was determined to get on the scoresheet, though and chased down a pass back to the keeper….surely not!

Goalkeeper Junior completed his nightmare night as Ellis won the contest and rolled the ball home for number four! Atletico did get on the scoresheet, though, with almost the last kick of the game, which was annoying for the visitors who nearly got the clean sheet. Stephen Ogunkoya slotted home the late Atletico consolation, but it was The Bridge’s night and a good win despite the clean sheet disappointment.

This game was another source of encouragement for The Bridge, who won without being at their best. The work rate and determination can’t be questioned, and this group is evolving into something quite special, and whisper it…two semi-finals! Can I get excited now?

A good performance in the first half when The Bridge were not at their best, often coping with two players and strong in the second half as The Bridge took control of the match. Combine that with playing in two positions (not at the same time!), and Rowan is the quarter-final, MOM.

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