ETCFC 2–3 Coggeshall Town
Rookery Hill | Attendance: 145
East Thurrock Community FC suffered a narrow 3–2 defeat against Coggeshall Town at Rookery Hill, despite battling until the final whistle and grabbing a late goal deep into stoppage time.
The Rocks were dealt the worst possible start when Coggeshall opened the scoring inside the first minute. A header towards goal caused a scramble inside the ETCFC box before the ball eventually found its way into the net to give the visitors an immediate 1–0 advantage.
Tommy Barnacle was shown the first yellow card of the afternoon in the sixth minute, before East Thurrock thought they had found an equaliser seven minutes later. Lewis Rowe produced an acrobatic finish to find the back of the net, only for the assistant referee’s flag to cut the celebrations short.
The Rocks did not have to wait much longer, however, and were level on 16 minutes. Aleem Balogun flashed a dangerous low cross into the box from the right and, after a Coggeshall defender failed to clear properly, Albert was perfectly placed to calmly guide the ball into the bottom-right corner.
ETCFC 1–1 Coggeshall Town.
The game developed into a busy, end-to-end contest as both sides looked to exploit the space in behind, although a succession of balls over the top were comfortably dealt with by the two goalkeepers.
Prince went into the referee’s book on 34 minutes before the Rocks had a penalty appeal waved away two minutes later when Zac went down inside the area. A poor decision and a blatant penalty denied.
There was concern just before the interval when Dan stayed down following a collision with the Coggeshall goalkeeper, but the sides eventually headed into the break level with the denial of another clear penalty claim with the goalkeeper clearly fouling Dan.
Half-time: ETCFC 1–1 Coggeshall Town.
East Thurrock started the second half brightly and created two opportunities in quick succession on 50 minutes. The industrious Balogun sent another dangerous low delivery across the face of goal with nobody able to get the decisive touch, before he got onto the end of a header but could only send his effort off target.
The Rocks made their first change on 52 minutes, with Newton replacing Reeman, before Barnacle delivered an excellent cross towards the far post six minutes later. It was begging for a finishing touch, but nobody could quite get their head to it.
A second East Thurrock substitution followed on 61 minutes as Hart replaced Barrett.
Five minutes later, the visitors regained the lead. Coggeshall broke quickly and took advantage of the space before calmly slotting the ball home to make it 2–1.
Things became even harder for the Rocks on 71 minutes when Coggeshall added a third, leaving East Thurrock with a two-goal deficit to overturn.
Further changes followed as Larochelle and Sanham were introduced in place of Bussell and Prince, before Callender replaced Barnacle for ETCFC’s final substitution on 78 minutes.
East Thurrock continued to push for a way back into the contest. Coggeshall’s number 12 was shown a yellow card on 86 minutes for obstructing Lewis Rowe, and the Rocks’ persistence was finally rewarded in the second minute of stoppage time.
Callender produced a lovely finish to pull one back and give ETCFC a final glimmer of hope.
ETCFC 2–3 Coggeshall Town.
There was no time left to find an equaliser, however, and the final whistle confirmed defeat for the Rocks.
A frustrating afternoon at Rookery Hill, particularly after recovering from the early setback to go into half-time level, but ETCFC continued fighting until the very end and were rewarded with Callender’s late strike.
Full-time: East Thurrock Community FC 2–3 Coggeshall Town
Attendance: 145
Written by Claire Thatcher