On Tuesday night, Southend Manor lost 2-0 to Hoddesdon Town in the Errington Cup at Southchurch Park.

With defender Reece Latimer unavailable, Manor boss Michael Walther decided to make a few changes with Hullbridge Sports player Michael Salako coming in for his debut with Fahad Nyanja returning to the lineup following his absence from Saturday’s defeat to Walthamstow.

Defenders Kiah Froud and Cameron Harris were also dropped to the bench with Ben Richardson making his first start for the club.

In the early exchanges, both teams started off brightly and rather well with good amounts of possession. However it was Hoddesdon who had the first opportunity of the game when Issac Masro-Jacobs sliced a ball high following a low pass from a teammate when 4 minutes into the game.

5 minutes later saw Coynon Bolton struck a strike leading to Manor keeper Patrick Stephenson able to save the ball safely into his hands. A few minutes later saw Stephenson save Manor once again when a shot by Hoddesdon blocked off from his feet.

4 minutes on from that saw Hoddesdon appeal for a penalty when Ope Musuro managed to hold off Cynus Babiac who then felt onto the ground in the penalty area. The referee denied any case for a penalty much to the dismay of the visiting management team.

Manor’s first opportunities at goal came about 25 minutes in when Grant Frances drove down the right wing and forced the Hoddesdon keeper to parry the ball away for a corner. A similar opportunity made from that corner saw the ball going high instead about a moment later.

As we approached added time of the first half, Grant Webb made a fantastic opportunity out of nothing where he struck at goal with only the Hoddesdon keeper Simon Dent able to parry it for a corner.

Half time came along and with it seeing the two sides locked at 0-0. A change for Manor was made as well.

The restart saw Hoddesdon begin the half with plenty of shots smashing into the Manor defence from a range of places both inside and outside of the penalty area. The defence held like a fort under siege in those opening moments before Hoddesdon were able to go through and strike a goal only for the referee to disallow it due to handball in the buildup play beforehand by one of their players.

About 3 minutes on from that saw Hoddesdon finally break into a lead as Cynus Babiac was fouled in the penalty area leading to the referee awarding a spot kick. It was down to Scott Hayes who scored the penalty as his shot went the opposite way to Stephenson.

4 minutes on from that goal saw Kiah Froud coming on for Grant Webb with Hoddesdon managing to grab another goal 5 minutes later through Liam Mulligan who managed to place a well timed shot beyond Stephenson following a quick breakaway.

After that goal, Hoddesdon remained in control for much of the 2nd half left in the game with Manor only able to make the odd breakaway attempt in order to try and bring this game back into contention.

With 5 minutes left of normal time, Michael Ogboin was able to make a break on the left wing where upon reaching the penalty area, crossed it in with Grant Frances just a moment too late to connect with the ball and unable to make it 2-1.

Manor had another opportunity available to them to make it 2-1 as Richardson was given a free kick that he through balled into Frances who then unfortunately skived the ball high and wide.

As we approached added time, Frances turned a Hoddesdon defender before shooting and ultimately forcing a corner. The corner ultimately proved to be of no use of a chance to Manor and that was the final phase of play gone.

The full time whistle blew and with it, the end to Manor’s chances of being in the Errington Cup as gutting as it felt to the club. It was simply another game that had it been played on another day, they could’ve ended up with a good result.

Manor return to Essex Senior League action on Saturday afternoon with a crucial game against Clapton up ahead at Southchurch Park.