Purfleet 1 - Dagenham & Rbridge 2.

(Essex Senior Cup Final).

Daggers ended their season in style to bring home the Essex Senior Cup after a convincing performance at Purfleet on Thursday night.

The game had been rearranged owing to dreadful weather conditions earlier in the week, but this time the pitch was almost perfect.

And they made a great start when, in the fifth minute, Paul Cobb was set free by a great ball from keeper Paul Gothard and his cross-shot flew into the net.

The lead was well deserved as Daggers had blitzed the Purfleet goal with Cobb himself hitting the bar a few moments earlier.

But they were rocked back when Purfleet equalised soon afterwards. Despite the linesman signalling offside the referee allowed a Purfleet attack to continue and from the resultant cross the ball was slid home in a crowded penalty area.

It stayed 1-1 until half time with both teams playing impressive attacking football.

After the break Daggers took advantage of the strong wind at their backs to take control of the game.

Tim Cole and John Stimpson dominated at the back and were equal to every long ball which Purfleet could throw at them.

Ted Hardys side began to threaten more and with just ten minutes left they scored the winner.

After an attack had broken down on the left hand side, the ball fell kindly for Courtney Naylor who cracked it home from 20 yards. A hectic last few minutes ensued but Daggers held on to clinch some silverware for the season.

qOn Saturday Daggers rounded off their league campaign with an impressive 5-2 victory over Heybridge Swifts.

Fielding an unchanged team from Thursday, Daggers made a great start with Paul Cobb again on target to volley home his 30th goal of the season from Danny Shipps deep cross.

Following more good pressure Cobb returned the compliment to set Shipp free for number two after ten minutes, and although Swifts replied immediately the Daggers remained firmly on top. Mark Janneys weaving run ended with the visitors third goal just before the break.

A Heybridge penalty briefly made it 3-2 before Daggers again took over and with 15 minutes remaining Shipp chipped home number four and Janney bagged his second in the last few seconds to make it 5-2.

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