LITTLE Oakley were beaten 4-3 by May and Baker in the Essex Senior Cup, writes LARRY DOBKIN.

The evening started with a minute’s silence in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, which was respectively observed.

Oakley rang the changes with Brothers, Abel, Crisell, Cooke and new signing Pibworth starting and Rodger returning from suspension.

Oakley were in the groove from the start.

After only a minute, a flowing move found Rowe, whose volley was well saved by the keeper.

Man of the match Johnson, Rowe, and Rodger were linking up well and carving out chance after chance.

Pibworth, who had started his first Oakley game, strongly found Rodger.

He laid a defence-splitting ball to Rowe, but the shot was well saved by the keeper.

In the 27th minute, Johnson was strong in the tackle, winning the ball in midfield.

With great vision he sprayed the ball to Rodger, who controlled the ball with an excellent first touch.

It allowed him to get in a powerful shot that the keeper allowed to go under his body and in, giving Oakley a 1-0 lead.

The Acorns were on top and dominating the play.

The silky Johnson was running midfield when a ball was played through midfield arriving at Johnson's feet.

Johnson's pass found Rowe, who shot past the keeper to double Oakley's lead.

The Acorns have been guilty recently of letting leads slip.

And with their first attack, a May and Baker throw was picked up in midfield where Omogbai took a speculative shot that took a massive deflection, looping over the top of the Oakley keeper to pull a goal back.

May and Baker now had confidence and four minutes later, Omogbai beat Able for pace.

He cut into the box and attempting to win the ball back, Abel bundled Omogbai over giving the referee no option but to award a penalty.

The spot-kick was well taken by Silcott-Brown, who equalised to make it 2-2.

May and Baker were now in the ascendency and were looking dangerous.

Oakley gave a foul away 25 yards outside the Oakley box.

The cross and header was met by the centre-forward but easily saved by Bedingfield.

Oakley were struggling to clear the ball and a flowing move down the wing by May and Baker found Aminu, whose shot was deflected over the Oakley bar.

With May Baker having most of the play in midfield, a direct ball in behind Harman saw him commit a last-ditch tackle which was badly timed, to concede a penalty.

Harman was shown a second yellow card and duly sent off, with Amiun netting the resultant penalty to put May and Baker 3-2 up.

With ten men and a goal down, Oakley had an uphill task on their hands.

With Johnson still driving Oakley forward, they managed to get a corner after a good passing move.

After a short scramble following a cross, the ball found Johnson whose shot was deflected in to level it at 3-3.

With 90 minutes up and penalties looming, a long ball out of May and Baker's half was picked up outside the Oakley box.

Omogbai managed to get a shot off but while being well saved by Bedingfield, the ball fell back to Omogbai who fired home May and Baker's winner.