YOUTH FOOTBALL: Six Brentwood Town youth players and two more from Billericay Town formed the nucleus of the successful Essex Youth team that defeated Oxfordshire 4-1 in the FA Youth Cup Third Round on Saturday.
Brentwood's Jacob Dingle, Connor Witherspoon, Charlie Rolls, Sam Cross, Shadrack Ngandu and Alex Akrofi all starred in the win along side Billericay's Matt Williams and Richard Hall plus Yosheya Lomotey from Shenfield School.
First-half strikes from Dan Walshe and Ngandu were followed after the interval by efforts from Dingli and skipper Cross as Oxfordshire were put to the sword despite Declan Shepherd halving the deficit for the visitors on the stroke of half time.
The match, played at Thurrock's ground, saw Ngandu score the county's second goal,
After both Cross and Akrofi had gone close Essex gained the cushion of a third goal arriving on 61 minutes, Dingli running onto Akrofi's through ball and slotting coolly home.
The deciding fourth goal came on 72 minutes as Akrofi's curling left-flank free kick was met by a powerful diving header from county skipper Cross.
A last-minute chance of a fifth goal for Essex was denied by the crossbar as Akrofi's header, from a Walshe assist, bounced off the goal frame.
Essex now face Wiltshire in the next round in what will be a re-run of last season's semi-final.