Upminster picked up a valuable 3 points with a late winner to edge out Long Sutton at Coopers.
The match started fairly evenly, with Long Sutton have the slight upper hand, but both teams looking lively and creating chances. After Upminster missed a gilt edged chance to take the lead, they were immediately punished as the away raced to the other end and opened their account after 15 minutes.
Through a lot of back and forth both teams will consider themselves unfortunate to not have scored, with the closest chance being from Long Sutton as a shot hit defender Nathan Woods in the face, leaving him with a broken nose and a concussion. Thankfully the shot was not adjudged to be goalbound.
As the half continued, Upminster began to assert themselves on the game, and were duly rewarded when, after some nice build up play, veteran Mike Scrivener tapped in at the far post.
The second half saw Upminster grow into the game even more, while Long Sutton still threatened and were dangerous, the home side will feel they had the better of the attacking play. This was illustrated by Dave Hadsley deftly turning in a short corner to give the home side the lead.
With minutes to go it appeared that home hearts had been broken, as a well constructed Long Sutton move allowed a spare man to tap in at the far post in what was a well worked goal. The away side’s joy was short lived, however, as a final short corner in the dying seconds was converted by Scrivener to rapturous applause.
At the halfway point of the season, Upminster find themselves on 15 points, which they will hope to use as a springboard to push on and challenge some of the high flyers in the division. Upminster host East London at Coopers on Saturday in their final match before the Christmas break, hoping to continue their impressive home form this season.
