Tillingham Hotspur retain trophy with a convincing victory

Tillingham Hotspur’s successful association with the Dave Strachan Knockout Cup continued on Monday when they easily defeated Laindon Orient 4-0 at a sun drenched White Notley F.C.

Tillingham were of course the holders of the competition but Laindon created the best chances early on. Brett White should have opened the scoring inside the opening 5 minutes when a long punt up field by Laindon keeper Jack Scott was met by White who lobbed the ball wide of the left hand upright. Ashley Blackburn’s trickery down the left opened up the Tillingham defence but he blazed over. Lewis Francis went closet for Laindon when his shot went narrowly wide.

The holders could only muster a tame effort on goal from Callum Hubble, from a well worked free kick.

As the half wore on so Tillingham started to put more pressure on the Laindon goal. A Nathan Hull free kick bobbled in front of the Laindon keeper but Passley was unable to knock in the rebound.

On 30 minutes Tillingham opened the scoring. A corner on the left by Nathan Hull was mis-judged by the Laindon keeper and the ball flew into the back of the net.

Scott was then called on to save smartly from Danny Ayden and Callum Hubble as the half drew to a close

Half Time Laindon Orient F.C. 0 Tillingham Hotspur F.C. 1

Within the opening 3 minutes of the second half and Tiiingham had doubled their lead when another set piece saw a corner from Hull on the right met at the near post by skipper Josh Hull who saw the ball go in to the corner of the goal.

Immediately from the kick off Laindon secured a free kick on the far left edge of the 18 yard box. Newell free kick caused some anxiety in the Tillingham defence but the fall flew to safety.

A quick throw out released Ayden down the right and his cross come shot flew just wide of the far post as Tillingham looked to close the game out.

Blackburn and O’Kane saw efforts blocked by the Tillingham defence, when on 82 minutes it was virtually game set and match. Hull broke down the left cleverly avoiding two Laindon defenders, he passed the ball onto Hubble to fire into the corner. Hubble added his second and Tillingham’s fourth on 88 minutes as he drove home from the edge of the box.

Full Time and Tillingham had successfully defended the trophy they secured 12 months ago

Full Time Laindon Orient F.C. 0 Tillingham Hotspur F.C. 4