In a game of high drama, Southend Collegians' season came to a heartbreaking end as they lost on penalties to Hawkwell Athletic in the quarterfinals of the cup. Despite dominating possession and chances early on, Collegians went behind 1-0, but managed to equalize soon after. However, they went into halftime 2-1 down.
The second half saw Collegians once again start strongly, but a third goal conceded threatened to take the game away from them. However, they managed to pull one back to make it 3-2, and then equalized from the penalty spot in the 88th minute, sending the game into extra time.
The first half of extra time was uneventful, but the players dug deep in the second half. Rick broke into the box and scored a header, giving Collegians a 4-3 lead with 8 minutes to go.
However, in the dying minutes, a controversial goal was awarded to Hawkwell, despite the scorer admitting that he was offside. The game went to penalties, and unfortunately, Collegians lost 5-4.
Collegians manager, Stacey Taberner, said after the game:
I could not ask for anything else from These boys today they got robbed today and come back so many times I’m very proud they deserved to go through today.
It was a cruel end to a hard-fought game, but Collegians can take pride in their efforts and the way they fought until the very end. They can hold their heads high and look to build on this performance in the future.
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