Saturday afternoon saw Hullbridge Sports lose 2-1 to Stanway Rovers of the Eastern Counties Premier Division in the FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round.

In Sports' first competitive clash since finishing pre-season on Tuesday night with a 3-1 defeat at Isthmian Premier side Hornchurch, it was them who started off slowly in a game dominated by a strong wind.

Stanway took an early lead through Blackwell after 16 minutes past Sports keeper Rob Budd who was making his debut after Louis Greene dislocated his finger last week at the 4-2 defeat to Hertford Town. For most of the half, Stanway had the better chances by managing to use the wind to their advantage with quite a few balls being led down by their goalkeeper.

Half time came along with Sports losing 1-0 and some hope of if the events from our game against Gorleston in the FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round where we won 2-1 last season would happen again. Those hopes were dashed 7 minutes into the game as Stanway secured another goal from Holdstock who managed to volley a cross in.

Matt Rose was booked 5 minutes later for a rather rash challenge of which 4 minutes later, he was taken off for Perry Nunn. A face who has signed on for this season once again with the Sports.

For the final 25 minutes, Sports attempted to work their way back in with Luke Hornsley being supplied with a few through balls and Michael Salako also being supplied by the Hullbridge midfield once he came on in the 75th minute. 3 minutes after Salako's arrival, Timothy Monsheju came on for Courtney Homans and made an impact in pushing the ball up the field.

In the 81st minute, Luke Hornsley made an good run into the penalty area before being fouled in the box. The referee pointed to the spot with Monsheju scoring a minute later. Were the Sports going to spark a comeback and force a Tuesday night trip to Stanway in the final 8 minutes? Well, the answer to that was no unfortunately.

Hullbridge continued to press for the final minutes left with frustrations mounting including Emmanuel Okunja who was booked for squaring up with the Stanway keeper after a reported stamp in the closing minutes of the game.

The full time whistle blew and with it, a chance to play Tilbury at Chadfields on the Saturday of the August Bank Holiday weekend in the FA Cup Preliminary Round following defeat to Stanway who ultimately capitalised on the wind being ever so strong.

We go again on Saturday when we welcome Witham Town for our debut Isthmian North fixture. Next Saturday's game being our final home fixture until August Bank Holiday when we host Canvey Island in another league fixture.