Grays Athletic 3, Southend United 0

A patched-up Grays Athletic side, pieced together with string and sellotape, produced a fine performance to defeat Southend United U19s on Tuesday, (21 October) and progress in the BBC Essex Senior Cup Fourth Round.

The draw will be made on Friday (24 October).

Manager Darren Manning, chairman Lee Vehit and secretary Denise Bowers had all worked long into the night to put together a side capable of taking on headline opponents.

A host of injuries combined with recent departures had stripped the squad down to Harry Redknapp levels of bare bones. Darren gave debut starts to two recent recruits - Freddie Price and Emmanuel (Ainsley) Frempong. Both did the club proud. And there were two further new names on the bench - coach Marvin Hamilton and a further signing, Tecane Shrowder.

The game started at a lively pace. Early on, Sam Bantick produced a nice reverse pass to set up Joe Paxman who shot wide and then there was a great burst of pace through the midfield from Shrimpers' Nathan Woodley but his chance was snuffed out.

Debutant Price was showing some real skill out wide left, on loan to Blues from a higher level while regaining his fitness. He was found by a lovely through ball from Sid Walker and found himself one-on-one with Southend keeper, Joshua Barrett, who made a good first save but he then spilled the ball, giving Price a second bite that went just wide.

Opportunities were plentiful at both ends but neither side could convert. Harry Hope had two half chances, and in between, Jack Stone brought a strong save out of Blues keeper, George Marsh.

A Macauley Joynes long throw then caused panic in the Southend six yard box, with Barrett twice clawing the ball off the line but Grays just couldn't force the ball over. The final chance of the half fell again to Stone who should have done better with a close-range header.

The second half was only three minutes old when Walker hooked the ball back into a crowded penalty area, Harry Hope flicked a header goalwards and found the unlikely figure of Jack Turner bursting through to finish past Barrett, for his first goal in a Blue shirt, to give Grays a 1-0 lead.

And it was soon 2-0 when Price was downed in the box by Rio Thomas and up stepped Bantick to bury the spot kick.

Grays were flying at this point, putting balls into dangerous areas from all directions. The best was a cross from Hope that went right across the box with no-one on hand to apply the finish.

Hope was then involved again a few minutes later when his long-range shot was well saved by Barrett.

But he only found newcomer Shrowder, just off the bench and his low cross took a wicked series of deflections off of Southend defenders leaving Oscar Shelvey-Negus to run in and finish from close range to make it 3-0, sending Blues fans into raptures.

The Shrimpers started to empty their bench and turned up the heat on Blues, but the home defence held strong, with their other new boy Frempong making a great first showing at full back.

Harrison Lamb mishit a shot giving Marsh an easy save but he was then tested fully by sub Nikolay Zlatev who found himself free inside the penalty area but couldn't find a way past the Blues keeper.

In added time Bantick slotted home at the back post after Barrett had made another save at full-stretch.