Notts County 5, Aveley 0

A BIG MATCH too far but a dream day that will never be forgotten. That would be the summing up of Aveley GC's FA Trophy defeat at Notts County on Saturday when the full time professionals porved too much and ended a gallant cup run that took the Millers to within two ties of Wembley.

530 Aveley fans made the trip to Meadow Lane and backed the team from start to finish.

They had cause to dream for the first half hour as Aveley had a resolute 32 minutes where we went toe-to-toe with the National League side after a string of fine saves from David Hughes in the Millers goal.

The first chance of the game came on the 10th minute as Kristian Dennis was denied by Hughes who was able to push the free-kick around the right-hand post. Dennis was again to be denied by David Hughes as the keeper managed to get down sharply to his left-hand side to keep the scores level.

Notts County continued to look for the opener and it nearly came from a corner as Adam Long nor Kristian Dennis could get a telling touch and it was scrambled clear by Jonathan Nzengo. Crawford was next to test David Hughes but again Millers Number one was equal to it.

On 30 minutes we got our first corner of the game. Jason Raad played it short to Alex Akrofi who found Sam Mvemba in the box, but he couldn't get his header right in the end and it was blocked and cleared away.

Two minutes later the hosts took the lead. O'Brien was allowed to drift inside and take aim from 25 yards out, and for once Hughes was found wanting.

With 13 minutes left of the half County doubled their lead. Kelly-Evans combined with Osborne who picked out Crawford on the edge of the area who curled into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal.

And on the stroke of half time, Notts County pretty much killed the game off as Osborne and Wootton combined for Osborne to take the ball in his stride to beat Hughes one-on-one. Notts County 3-0 Aveley.

Aveley started the second half brightly and a mix-up in the Notts defence between the centre half and goalkeeper almost gave Alex Akrofi a golden opportunity, but great covering from the full-timers denied even a 50/50 chance before clearing the ball away.

George Sykes got in behind down the left-hand side, beat one defender but just couldn't squeeze in his left-footed shot which hit the side netting.

Just after the hour mark Kyle Wooton made it 4-0 to Notts County, Aveley players questioned the linesman for an offside, but a ball was slipped through to Wootton who finished into the bottom left-hand corner.

Three minutes after their fourth, Notts County added their fifth, Doyle on his 800th professional appearance played in Scott Wilson on his Pies debut who slotted it into the net.

With twenty minutes left and a corner for the Millers was nodded just wide of the left-hand post by central defender George Allen. But Millers could easily feel aggrieved a penalty wasn't given as Shad Ngandu made a good run into the box, was taken out from behind, but unfortunately, the officials didn't see it as a foul as the hosts cleared the ball away.

A goal is what the Millers players, staff and fans deserved for this incredible run, Alex Akrofi was through on goal but just had his chip catch the wind and go away from the goal.

After the game Aveley boss Keith Rowland had no complaints. The Northern Irishman

felt the occasion got the better of some of his players.

"Credit to Notts County," he said."I thought they were excellent from the off. They didn't give us any time on the ball and didn't take their foot off it. Fair play to them. I hope they go and play at Wembley.

"They are a massive football club at this level and I'm sure if they went to Wembley then they'd pack the place.

"The actual event got to our players a bit. They're young boys, I had teenagers on the pitch. The game got to them more than it should have. We didn't put any pressure on them, we were careless on the ball and we lost our shape a little bit.

"Yes we're disappointed, but we're realists. We were up against a good team."

Placing a positive spin on the defeat, Rowland hopes that the progress made in the tournament can help contribute to an Isthmian League North promotion push.

He added: "It hurts to lose by five goals. We're in the middle of the play-offs and I don't want the performance to affect us in the league.

"We have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and go again. The Trophy has been nothing but positive. It's been a great boost for the football club. It has to be a positive experience. They've gone well above expectation level. We just wanted to give the fans a goal.

"Our boys wanted Notts County the round before. This game was maybe that little bit too far for us. Neal's team didn't let us off the hook but we're not too disappointed. We lost to a good team."

County boss Neal Ardley said: "Credit to Aveley. They came and had a go. They've beaten teams above them. They played two up front, a big man and a little man, who has scored 25 goals. They didn't come to sit in."