At the half way stage of the season, Upminster Mens 2s welcomed the return fixture of Southend Mens 1s to Coopers.
Both teams set up defensively tight and in the early exchanges chances were very few and far between. Southend began to move the ball around at pace and with their high press, managed to keep Upminster back in their own 25. A couple of decent PC saves from the U’s goalkeeper Robertson kept the score all square at the break.
At the break the U’s decided that the best way to break the press would be to go with the aerial ball. With this change the U’s looked much more of a threat on the counter attack and went close before breaking the deadline when Green nicked in to a lose backpass to push it into the net. This was followed up when another aerial ball fell to Green who set Boyle loose down the left hand side, Boyles superb pass into the ‘D’ was tapped in at the back post by Dance.
Southend rallied and pulled a goal back with a fine individual goal but the U’s held on in the last 10mins to secure the victory.
At the Christmas break, Upminster remain 5th in Div 3SE after an impressive first half of the season with just 2 defeats.
