Huntingdonshire U18 4 Essex U18 0 WHAT a day it proved to be for the Huntingdonshire U18 youth team as they overcame a strong Essex side to reach the third round of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 13 seasons. A trip to Wiltshire on December 1 is t

Huntingdonshire U18 4 Essex U18 0

WHAT a day it proved to be for the Huntingdonshire U18 youth team as they overcame a strong Essex side to reach the third round of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 13 seasons.

A trip to Wiltshire on December 1 is the reward for a team growing in confidence with each outing.

The result was more impressive than the performance for although Hunts never looked like losing they were under a great deal of pressure until they came up with two goals in the last eight minutes of the match.

Both sides had early chances with Tony Russ volleying just over the bar for the visitors at one end and Hunts replying at the other with a fierce volley from John Hall that went just wide.

However, it was Hunts who looked the more composed side and after only nine minutes James Hall cut in from the left and saw his shot parried by visiting keeper Bobby Mason only for it to fall to the ever-alert Jamie Osborne who was on hand to tap in the rebound.

The hosts then had an excellent spell keeping the visiting defence at full stretch with a second goal looking likely. It came after 23 minutes from a James Hall corner headed down by Josh Crick and lasered into the net by James Curran.

With the Essex team reeling Hunts seemed to ease off and the visitors produced several shots from distance which were comfortably saved by Ryan Rayner.

The Hunts lads then produced two more good chances before the break. James Hall burst clear but shot weakly at goal when he had earned time to compose himself, and then Jamie Osborne produced an electric burst of speed to go between the last two defenders but he buried his shot in the side netting.

Hunts had two chances early in the second half but this spurred the visitors on and they had a good spell squandering at least two fine chances.

With Essex dominating in midfield manager Adi Corney opted to withdraw striker Rob Devoy and send on an extra midfield player.

This partially stemmed the tide but Essex could have scored with 10 minutes left as home keeper Rayner was needed to pull off the save of the day.

With just eight minutes left Hunts scored through Jamie Osborne who held off a challenge to make it 3-0.

Then Jack Gray completed the scoring two minutes from time, taking advantage of a deflection.