Upminster seconds earned the club bragging rights over the thirds with a 4-2 win in their East Three South East domestic derby.
Having dropped down a division, they started the game with reasonable intensity looking for some early opportunities to quieten a decent sized crowd that had gathered at Coopers.
Ellis Pickering and William Doyle saw chances snuffled out by the third team's game plan to defend deep and hit quickly on the break.
And around 15 minutes had passed when the thirds got into their stride and started to threaten with their pace on the break.
This was rewarded when a penalty corner was given and Chris Heggleton fired the sweetest of strikes past the pads of goalkeeper Mit Shah to open the scoring.
And the lead was doubled with a carbon-copy effort, with Heggleton thundering his second goal of the game home.
The seconds were clearly rattled and their early rhythm was gone, but with just two minutes of the half remaining a lifeline was given when Nick O’Dell hit a clean strike from a penalty corner past third-team goalkeeper John Daltry to halve the deficit.
They came out with much more purpose after the restart, moving the ball around at pace in the wide areas and creating opportunities, resulting in an equaliser from a clever corner routine which Jamie O’Dell finished off.
With some of the pressure lifting from the seconds, man of the match Ryan Hodges got control of the game in the middle of the pitch and started to dictate play.
And the third goal came from another corner with Phil Hudson deflecting a Nick O’Dell strike into the net to put them ahead for the first time.
With tiring legs among the thirds, a fine ball in from Jamie O’Dell was deflected by Michael Scrivener to seal the 4-2 win for the seconds in a very entertaining game.
Defeat was tough on the thirds, who put up an almighty fight, and they will look to bounce back when they host Saffron Walden thirds this weekend, as the seconds visit Old Loughts fourths.
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