Heybridge Swifts 1, Tilbury 0

A GOAL two minutes into added time in tonight's quarter-final (Tuesday, 17 December) dumped Dockers out of the BBC Essex Senior Cup.

Deadlock had prevailed before, with two evenly-matched Isthmian North sides seeking a semi-final place, but the tie was decided when Manny Osei-Owusu won the day with a volley from close range.

It was an evening of few chances at either end in front of a crowd of 171 at the First Call Community Stadium.

One of the first fell for Dockers' captain Oliver Spooner after 20 minutes had passed but he failed to capitalise on confusion caused by Sam Bantick's long throw and his effort was blocked.

At the other end Swifts' Vinnie Bowman created an opening, but his through ball was agonisingly out of reach of his attacking teammates.

Dockers thought they had taken the lead on 56 minutes when Kieran Jones' corner was headed home by Jack Hayes, but the ref adjudged Sam Carter had fouled home keeper Callum Chafer.

Tilbury looked to be finishing the stronger and Callum was fortunate to be in the right place to save Bantick's shot after good work by Jordan Clark and sub Dan Trendall.

Then another sub, Alex Hernandez, struck a fine free kick that was denied only by a good save from Chafer.

Then with the final seconds ticking down, Osei-Owusu enjoyed his match-winning moment.

There was one final dramatic moment for Tilbury when another sub, Lindell Stewart, went down in the box but again they got nothing productive from the ref and moments later he called time and Dockers were left to wonder on what might have been as they returned home to begin preparations for another important away day, this time on Saturday (21 December) when they go to relegation zone Wrexham hoping to claw their way back into the the promotion zone.