Grays Athletic 0, Hitchin Town 1

AFTER the heartache of conceding a goal deep in added time on Saturday (16 August) to give Hitchin a second chance, Grays suffered the misery of defeat in the replay tonight (Wednesday, 20 August).

The first half belonged very much to the visitors and they nearly opened the scoring very early on when they won a corner resulting in the ball whizzing through the Blues penalty area but with no-on hand to apply the finishing touch.

What turned out to be the only goal of the game came soon after. With just seven minutes on the clock, the usually oh-so-reliable Lewis Clark misjudged the flight of a long ball down the park, allowing the busy Mbunya Alemanji to steal in behind him and cleverly lob George Smith in the Grays goal for a 1-0 lead.

Kye Tearle should have extended the lead soon after but screwed his shot wide.

A rare first half chance for Grays came from a Macauley Joynes corner that Clark headed back across goal but off-target. Luke Hirst and Harry Hope then combined to set up Jayden Silcott-Brown but his long-range effort came to nothing.

Alemanji almost had his second of the night just before the half hour, when his close-range header was tipped over the bar by Marsh. At the other end, Callum Fitzer had what was probably Blues' best chance of the night when he had two goes to beat Josh Bowler in the Hitchin goal, but the keeper was up to the task.

After the break, Grays saw much more of the ball as they pressed for the equaliser, with Hitchin looking to preserve their lead and playing mainly on the break. But try as they might, Blues just couldn't find a way through the stubborn visitors' packed defence. Sid Walker tried a piledriver from distance but the chance of the ball finding a clear path through to goal were just too limited.

Darren Manning did what he could from the bench, introducing Casey Nolan-Samuels and Aron Gordon both of whom made a difference - the former's long throws creating a different problem for Hitchin to deal with and Gordon plying his usual trickery on the ball. But there was just no way through and credit to the visitors for sticking to their task.

With things getting evermore desperate, Grays raised their tempo and threw everything forward. A Sid Walker chance spun up off a defender and Bowler tipped the dipping ball over the crossbar. The sight of a board showing seven minutes added time raised Blues fans' hopes of a Hitchin-like last gasp escape. A series of corners and Nolan-Samuels throw-ins saw keeper Marsh up in the attacking penalty area. But the chance just wouldn't come. Time-and-again, the Hitchin defence got bodies in the way to protect their goal and they will face Isthmian Premier Potters Bar Town in the next round.