A second 0-1 home defeat in a row but you couldn't get any different a match to the SBU defeat at the weekend. From a scrappy stop/start affair on Saturday to this entertaining Tuesday night cup battle between two teams who fought it out to the end with the visitors just shading it.

With both teams fielding decent line-ups, you could see they were taking it seriously, although The Bridge were slightly depleted with just 2 subs and backup keeper Buddy on the bench, and it provided an entertaining evening of cup football under the T.J. Cottis lights. Even the weather played the game on a rare mild and dry evening in Hullbridge!

With my pre-match question answered as to the whereabouts of the prolific Tony Martin (Great Wakering Rovers, seeing as you ask!), it was left to the equally prolific Luke Hirst to lead the Barking line but it was The Bridge who went closest to opening the scoring when an Adam Topley free kick was tipped wide by Max Spence who then made a great save when a Billy Willis corner was headed on by Jon Evans and Toppers shot was saved by the Barking keeper.

Jon Evans was then off-target with a header before Barking took control of the half and most of the play was at The Hullbridge end. Several Barking crosses were defended by The Bridge with Centre-backs Agboola and Bonket standing firm and Bradley Davison making some fine saves. Sam Dowridge fired over and Brad Rowland fired wide and Brad (of the Davison variety) caught headers from Warren Kayembe and Luke Hirst. Meanwhile, Toppers had another free-kick saved by Spence as both teams tried to break the deadlock.

Bradley Davison was having a great game in The Bridge goal and was unfortunate to see a slight mis-kick picked up by Barking’s Sam Dowridge who quickly slipped a pass to Bradleigh Rowland who provided a sharp finish into the corner of the Hullbridge net and Barking were 1-0 to the good just before half-time. There was still time for Bradley to save at the feet of Karl Kayembe and for Max Spence to save a deflected Oscar Onuorah shot at the other end before the whistle blew.

If the first half was Barking’s, the second belonged to The Bridge with the play, this time, mainly at the Barking end. Six minutes in and a Billy Willis pass was reverse passed by Tobi Coker and the onrushing Oscar Onuorah just failed to connect and then Spence gathered a cross by Alfie Whiteaker as the pressure mounted.

The equaliser nearly came on the hour mark when a Hullbridge free kick found its way to Tobi Coker who struck a sweet shot that bounced back off the post before Brad Rowland had a shot go wide at the other end. There were more chances for both teams with Bradley Davison saving well from Ezekiel Bademosi and Onuorah firing one wide but the closest to the leveler was from a Coker cross headed on by Jon Evans and Onuorah’s header from point-blank range was saved by Spence.

The Bridge piled on the pressure and a series of corners were defended by both Barking defence, and keeper as time began to drain away. Then a ball into the Barking box saw James King go down amid vocal protest from The Bridge but the referee was having none of it. No VAR meant no ten-minute delay and, for me, it probably was a pen but the man in black has the whistle and you can’t argue with the Men in Black as they are Galaxy defenders (Youngsters, ask your parents!).

Usually, at the end of games, there is one more chance and this was no different as a Tobi Coker free-kick was whipped in and Mike Agboola headed wide and Barking held on to progress to the semi-final.

So, the men in yellow march on but it was a good display from the men in blue and the men in black will erase all memory of the game if we question their decisions about non-awarded penalties, so it’s the end of the cup participation for The Bridge for 23/24. Still, all to play for in the ESL play-off chase though, and table-topping Tilbury are next up so…

Often it is quite difficult to choose the MOM as nobody stands out but there were many good performances from The Bridge in this one. Mentions for Boris Bonket, Tobi Coker, Oscar Onuorah, and Bradley Davison are due but in the end, I settled on Billy who took loads of corners and free kicks and was solid at right-back and also drove The Bridge forward on the right-side. A good performance from The Bridge, a good performance from Billy but, sadly, no semi-final but well played Bill.