Concord 1 v City 1 (T.Smith 79m)

A Tom Smith equaliser within 2 mins of going behind earned City a Tuesday night replay they just about deserved. Concord were a physical side that could also play and they had the vast amount of possession in both halves. City conceded a harsh looking 3rd min pen that Clarke saved with his legs. Concord also wasted a clear header soon after and their direct approach caused City problems. A turn and shot narrowly over from Pearson was City's only opportunity until Tom Smith hit the post during City's best spell.

The 2nd half saw City largely pinned back by Concords pressing, long throws and the wind. City relied on the counter and created a few half chances without causing the keeper too much angst. Eventually Concords ability to wriggle to the bye line and stand up a cross led to them heading in front. Straightaway City kept possession from the ko, kept the ball on the Concord half and put Tom Smith in to crash past the keeper. Thereafter Concord huffed and puffed without another clear opportunity and Pearson came close to winning it with a spectacular overhead that just went over the bar.

City will be relieved to get away with a draw as will the fans from this cold, bleak atmosphere free ground on the edge of the Thames estuary where passing container ships provided s unique distraction.

I think your assessment is quite hard on City. Yes, Concord were worth their draw, but so were we. They did enjoy the majority of possession and made life very hard for us on their compact pitch. Their physicality really put us off our stride for a good 20 minutes, when we couldn't seem to sustain any kind of move and plenty of passes went awry. However, we did better than to carve out half chances. We began to work the ball well enough to create three one-on-ones with their keeper, we hit a post at each end, and that's not counting the scything down of Pearson when he was advancing on goal, just out side their area. We also had numerous goal-bound shots charged down. Glad we're not playing Concord every week, but we did enough to win this.