BARKING & DAGENHAM ADVANCED into the quarter-finals of the London SFA Crisp Shield, with a 3-2 victory at St Albans.

 

The long journey had no effect on the legs of the visitors, who quickly got into their stride with quick, slick passing as they searched for the opener. Despite this, the hosts managed to restrict the visitors to long range efforts from outside of the penalty area, with Luis Ameny narrowly missing from distance with three speculative attempts.

 

The hosts narrowly missed taking the lead themselves against the run of play, when a corner from the left resulted in a scramble in the visitors’ box.

 

 

As the half wore on, Barking & Dagenham began to turn up the heat on St Albans, with crosses from wide players Adrianno Morrison and Mohamed Njie causing panic in the home defence.

 

Still no breakthrough could be found so, midway through the first half, Ikay Ozoani and Calvin Edomi were introduced as substitutes.

 

Within a minute, this paid off as a cross-field pass found it’s way to Edomi, who crossed again for top scorer Ozoani to side foot in his third goal in as many matches with his first touch.

 

Shortly after, Anemy’s persistence was rewarded. His powerful low shot from just outside the penalty area made it 2-0, giving the visitors a well deserved cushion at half time.

 

 

As expected, the hosts came out at the beginning of the second half with a sense of urgency, pinning the visitors back with a series of early attacks.

 

These waves caused indecision in the Barking and Dagenham defence, eventually leading the visitors to gift the hosts a lifeline by presenting St Albans with possession inside the box. The hosts gratefully converted and it was 1-2 and game on.

 

Concentration

 

This lapse in concentration and resulting goal seemed to wake the visitors out of their slumber, and they began to counter attack the hosts at will. Ameny, Nije, Ozoani and Morrison all came close to adding a third.

 

The third goal would eventually come from a short corner routine, with Tomas Jonyla, Tolga Ibryam and Ameny all involved to tee up Morrison. With his back to goal, he quickly turned and shot low into the bottom corner to relax the nerves.

 

The hosts pulled one more goal back with a last minute penalty, but it wasn’t enough as Barking and Dagenham saw out the clock.

 

Barking & Dagenham will be home in the last eight against Bexley, South London or Tower Hamlets.