INTO THE NEXT ROUND OF THE FA CUP

Needham Market advanced to the next round with clinical win over a spirited Tilbury.

Tom Rothery's side made 2 changes from Monday's game, captain Keiran Morphew and Seth Chambers replaced Dan Morphew and Ollie Saunders.

Luke Ingram scored twice in four first half minutes to make it 3 goals in two games,

Tilbury curled over from outside the box on 3 minutes, while Kyle Hammond saw a dangerous right wing cross caught by the keeper on his line a minute later.

Needham went agonisingly close on 6 minutes, Seth Chambers latched onto a great ball into space down the left wing to drive through and weave into the box, where his squared ball to an unmarked Luke Ingram saw the latter turn smartly from 8-yards out but fire wide of the bottom right-hand corner.

Ben Hunter then saw a shot blocked from just outside the box in the tenth minute, while Kyle Hammond lofted a dangerous 25-yard free-kick to the far post that the keeper flew off his line to turn behind on 15 minutes.

Hammond's resulting pinpoint right wing corner a minute later picked out Jake Dye who headed agonisingly just over of the top far corner.

The Marketmen were deservedly ahead in the 17th minute, after Luke Ingram cleverly won a right wing corner, the forward was the one to turn it home after another well crafted team move.

Hammond's exquisite set-piece found Seth Chambers unmarked at the far post at close range to head across to Jamie McGrath, who in turn chested it onto Luke Ingram also free at point blank range to lash home an instinctive half-volley into the bottom far corner.

Man of the match Ingram doubled his and Needham's tally on 21 minutes, a great team move saw Reggie Lambe send a great ball over the top for the former racing through one on one to loop his header over the onrushing goalkeeper and into the top left-hand corner.

Ben Hunter was booked for what was deemed to have been a reckless tackle, while visiting captain Jack Hayes also entered the referee's notebook having elbowed Chambers as he broke through clear on goal after a great long ball over the top on 34 minutes

Kyle Hammond a minute later curled the dangerous left-hand edge free-kick towards the far corner but saw it held by the keeper. The midfielder was teed up seconds later by Ingram, arriving onto the right-hand edge of the box but saw his fierce shot deflected wide.

Max Appauh drove down the wing onto the edge of the box for the Dockers on 38 minutes but fired over.

Reggie Lambe saw a 43rd minute free-kick, from the right-hand edge of the box, blocked by the wall, followed by Kyle Hammond arriving onto the right-hand byline picking out Jamie McGrath whose effort went over a minute later.

Jamie Reynolds however halved the deficit on 51 minutes, after an initial shot was blocked the forward smartly turning on the left-hand edge of the box before firing home into the bottom far corner.

Reggie Lambe made way for Ollie Saunders on 55 minutes, while Tilbury drove onto the edge of the box but fired over a minute later.

Great defending from the Marketmen thwarted an equaliser on 59 minutes, first Tommy Smith timed his sliding challenge to perfection at close range to prevent a close range shot, before James Bradbrook guarded his near, right-hand, post expertly to block a near post shot behind. The keeper then collected the corner well on his line, as Tommy Smith's left wing cross flashed across goal but just evaded all Red shirts in the vicinity.

Jake Dye then read play well on 63 minutes to head a dangerous right wing cross to the far post comfortably over his crossbar at close range, before James Bradbrook met a right wing free-kick at the far post to cleverly claim possession three minutes later.

Ryan Miles replaced Seth Chambers on 68 minutes, while Max Appauh broke through into the box before sliding home the equaliser a minute later.

Keiran Morphew was replaced by Matty Tricker on 71 minutes, while Jake Dye brilliantly blocked a shot on 75 minutes.

Joe Neal made way for Myles Cowling, while Hammond's 81st minute left wing corner created havoc as Tricker found Ingram whose first time shot was sliced wide of the far post.

Ryan Miles however restored the hosts' advantage on 83 minutes. Brilliant link up play between Cowling, Smith and McGrath saw the latter clip a great ball to the far side of the box to Ryan Miles to weave into space and hammer home across goal into the bottom far, right-hand, corner for his maiden Needham goal.

Fairs was then booked for time wasting on 87 minutes, while McGrath latched onto a great long ball clear on goal but the keeper rushed off his line to intercept and gather.

Connor Main was cautioned for a trip on McGrath after he'd beaten his man, as Ryan Miles doubled his tally in the 91st minute.

The winger broke clear on goal after Myles Cowling's through ball, following McGrath's flick on, before lashing home into the bottom near, left-hand, corner.

Appauh broke onto the left-hand edge of the box on 96 minutes but curled over, as Needham advanced to the second qualifying round.

Needham travel to Barwell next Saturday in the league (3pm).

Ryan Miles reacts to yesterday's FA Cup win

DK:Great win today in the FA Cup, a couple of goals for yourself, you must be buzzing?

RM: Yeah, I am, to be fair. I knew coming into a new club it was going to be difficult to get many minutes. So, it's good to get on the score sheet, impact off the bench, so yeah, it's good.

DK: And two well taken goals?

RM: Yeah, did some finishing with Tom and some of the other boys Thursday and felt quite comfortable in front of it. So, luckily today some of the balls fell to me and I put them away.

DK: How does it feel to be through in the FA Cup?

RM: Yeah, really good. Clubs like this thrive off a cup run. I think it's a fair play to them, they've put on a decent show for us to come back from 2-0.

Yeah, it's always good and hopefully we can progress a bit further.

DK: It's one of those classic cup ties you can call it.

RM: 100 per cent. You just know with a cup it's never over. Even if you are 2-0, 3-0 up, anything can happen. I think the boys defended really well, especially when the big lad came on top.

So, yeah, soaked up well and beat them on the counter attack. Yeah, it's quite pleasing.

DK: The second half you could argue they were better off it, but towards the end we came back and secured the win.

RM: Yeah, like you say, some games, and especially cup games, you have to soak up a bit of pressure. They've come quite far, they've not just tried to layover. So, soak it up, go on the counter, try and score. That's the aim of the game.

Nathan Munson reflects on yesterday's FA Cup win.

DK: A rather dramatic game, but we're in the hat.

NM: Yeah, absolutely. More dramatic than, of course, we wanted it to be, but the objective at the start of the day was for a couple of days, of course, to be in the hat. So, in that regard, it's an objective achieved.

DK: A very good first half put us in control of the break.

NM: Yeah, I thought there was a bit of a stiff breeze again straight down the pitch. So, you did feel that there might be differences in how it played out in both halves. First half, we played well. I think we got more than that, but we played well. We moved the ball and, you know, we know what Ingers is about. He's a threat.

We put the ball in good areas and he got the two goals for us, which really as a half wore on we probably dropped off it a little bit when we went two nil ahead a little bit, but it looked like we'd drawn the sting out of what Tilbury were going to offer. Tilbury looked like they'd run out of ideas a little bit, and, frankly, it's what we said at half-time. It's the energy that's going to happen. Just, you know, we've got to move the ball.

That was the way we said it at half-time. Of course, football doesn't always work just as you want it to, does it?

DK: The second half, we were on the back foot for a lot of it, but it took a lot of character from the lads to come from two-all to go back and restore the two-goal lead.

NM: Yeah, absolutely. We were tuning up and you've got the wind in your face. A team like Tilbury, I've played Tilbury teams a lot of times over the years, they'll always bring real endeavour and effort. You knew if they got one, then they'd be out with a tricky spell, which is exactly how it panned out. In the end, they've got the first goal. Their tails are up.

Their energy's gone into them. You try to keep the energy in us, but it just inevitably drops a little bit. They had a few corners and a few moments. We weathered it a little bit. Then they got the second. Fair play to them. They battled well. That's what you're going to get from them. At that point, to be honest, it was a little bit up in the air.

The game got away from us a little bit. We made some changes. Tom made a couple of changes there and it absolutely worked for us.

DK: Two really good goals for Ryan to get off the mark.

NM: Yeah, absolutely delightful. Really, really pleased for Ryan. He's come in. He's trained well. He's fitted in well with the lads.

He's a great shout himself with the squad. Probably he'll say he hasn't had enough minutes. He's come on, made it count. He's come on with the first goal. I have to say that the third goal that we scored was an absolutely wonderful goal. If you look at it back on VEO, there's any number of passes. We've played it round. We've got him through the midfield. We've ended up with Ryan, the ball across. It's just a wonderful ball. The way he's through their team. One of them's had a play to get back in.Then he slotted in the corner. It's absolutely wonderful. Then you just felt, listen, they're blowing themselves out a little bit for Ryan to get a second as well.Really delightful. Another cool finish in the back of the net. Some more headaches for the manager now coming into the next match.

DK: Are you glad it's not you with the headaches?

NM: Well, yeah. He invests a lot of time in this. An awful lot of time in it Credit to him for the amount that he does. I'm just trying to support him where I can.

DK: The most pleasing thing really today is the variety in the goals we've scored.

NM: Yeah, I think so. I think we've had a few moments where we haven't scored quite enough. I don't know.We've got five and three before this. That's not bad. We've had three clean sheets already this season.I think we've demonstrated that we're all right. But yeah, of course, it's pleasing to then get four goals at home today. Absolutely pleased with that.

Delighted for Ingers because, again, to add to the one he got against Leiston. Then for Ryan to come on and score as well. Really pleased.

DK: Back to the league next week with a trip to Barwell.

NM: Yeah, back to the league. Barwell. 3G. 3G. Tricky,but, I mean, although there's been a bit of a topsy-turvy game today, we'll go there full of confidence. Of course, we're at the draw to look forward to Monday. So we'll see if the hat's kind to us.oAnd then we'll have to assess. We've got one or two knocks. We'll have to assess and see where we're at with those, but I think, you know, we'll have – hopefully most of them will be back. I think it might be Reggie might be in international duty perhaps. But, you know, hopefully we'll have the nucleus of a good squad, and we'll go there with a lot of belief again. I think if we can, you know, go on to that and get a result, then that puts us well placed in the league again.

DK: Are you hoping for another home tie or are you not too bothered?

NM: Yeah, I think so. I think we're hoping for a home tie, to be honest. I think if we get anybody here that's in the tournament already, then we'd think that we're in a really, really good chance.

So I think that's all we can really hope for. Home tie. I don't know if there's anybody, you know, if they're a step below or whatever, then on paper that's a good tie, but football isn't played on paper really. So whoever we get, we'll go there, we'll give it our absolute best shot because we've had some good moments over the recent past and even both in the FA Cup and the FA Trophy. And they are one to make memories for.

So the lads obviously went to the first-round at Burton as you all see. We had York and the Trophy. So we've had some really memorable occasions and we want to achieve that again for the lads, but also for the fans that support us through thick and thin.

Luke Ingram discusses yesterday's home FA Cup win.

DK: A thrilling FA Cup, you must be pleased?

LI: Yeah, good to get through. Made it a lot more difficult than we needed to, which hopefully is something we'll learn from, but end of the day it's a cup game, as long as you get through to the next round, it doesn't really matter.

DI: Three goals in two games for you now, which must make it even better.

LI: Yeah, I mean, I missed a couple of chances today, so I could have more, but yeah, it's nice to sort of get going and start racking up the numbers. Want to get to 20 goals again, so you've got to start scoring somewhere, haven't you?

DK: Yeah, well-taken goals today as well.

LI: Yeah, couldn't really miss the first one, but good ball in from Reggie and a header for the second one.

So yeah, should have had a hat-trick, but beggars can't be choosers.

DK: It's about, like you said, it's more about getting through and putting us into the next round.

LI: Yeah, I mean, we've been the Tilbury of the Cup many times where we've gone to big sides, bigger sides and tried to make an upset.

So at the end of the day, they had nothing to lose through, everything had it. We should run away with the game at two and a half time, but that's football, isn't it? It's not played on paper. So yeah, we just have to learn from it.

DK: Yeah, good character from you lads to respond from that setback to go and wrestle the game back in our favour.

LI: Yeah, it can go one of two ways. The game can carry on as it was and they could get third or we could end up having a replay go back there, but Ryan Miles done well when he came on and he's got two goals. Just a little bit of calm just to find a pass and we was opening them up again, but like I say, it was a difficult second half.

They played well and we've not played up to our standards for the whole half. So yeah, we're lucky to get away with it, but it's a Cup game, like I say.

DK: In another way, you could say we were quite clinical when we did have our chances.

LI: Yeah, I mean, we could say we've been guilty of missing chances in the last few weeks, but we've sort of put them away today. So hopefully we've done a bit on training and stuff, a bit on crossing, a bit on shooting. So you'd like to think that's paid off and then hopefully we take it into next Saturday and Tuesday because that should bring them back out of the league.

So we've got to start scoring more goals in the league.

DK: Yeah, two real big away trips to come against sides that we know will be quite physical.

LI: Yeah, it's a 4G at Barwell, so it's always a hard game.

And then it's Royston on a Tuesday, so at the end of the day, you're looking to go there, you're looking to come back with four points at least, hopefully six. So yeah, that should set the tone going back into the FA Cup and put us in a good position in the league. So yeah, two big games and hopefully everyone's fighting fit and ready to go.

DK: What's the mood been like in the change rooms after the game?

LI: Yeah, obviously we're all happy that we got through, but we're all aware that we've just nearly thrown away a 2-0 lead at half-time against a team the league below. So there's no like singing and dancing in there, but we've done the job, secured the money, secured the next round. So that's all you can do in a cup game.

Don't matter whether you win 1-0, 2-0, 8-0, as long as you get through.