Wednesday 29th October, 2025 | Buckhurst Hill 1-0 Soul Tower Hamlets | Errington Challenge Cup Round One | Attendance : 71
By Harry Biggs
Buckhurst Hill FC returned to winning ways when they booked themselves a spot in the second round of the Errington Challenge Cup after a 1-0 victory over current top of the ESL table Soul Tower Hamlets.
Mark Williams made three changes to the side that lost away to Hackney Wick last time out. Preston Knight returned to the side after suspension, so that meant Jack Johnson would drop to the substitutes bench. Carter Ford wasn’t named in the squad after he was replaced by Dimitri Nicolaou in the midfield. The final change to the starting eleven saw Arthur Massingham named on the bench with Callum Maltese returning to the starting side after he was named on the bench against Hackney Wick.
Onto the action now and the start of the game saw a pretty even start with both sides having a bit of the ball but no one could create that cutting chance.
Soul Tower Hamlets had a penalty shout waved away by the referee before Christian North was called into action to make two brilliant saves to deny the high flying visitors.
Liam Foster went into the book just before the break after he earnt himself a yellow card. A minute later The Stags would go close to leading the game after a free kick was pushed aside well by the visitors keeper Haidara with the teams going into the break still level.
The Stags came out in the second half the much better side and it would stay that way for the reminder of the game with Buckhurst Hill pushing their opponents to the limit.
After a period of the second half had gone, Mark Williams decided to make two changes in the space of ten minutes with both Nicolaou and Edwards replaced by Massingham and Johnson.
A few minutes after the latest change the visitors’ keeper was called into action after Haidara was forced into tipping the ball over the crossbar when Ollie Williams struck an effort from miles out, which troubled the visitors. From the resulting corner another chance went by without Buckhurst Hill finding the back of the net when Williams hooked the ball back into the box to find the head of Dolan, who laid the ball off to the feet of Lusher with the striker pulling off a shot at goal but it was deflected over at point blank range.
Mark went onto make another change to try and change the outcome of the game putting on Jack Ferris for Josh Banfield.
The opening finally came for The Stags with just fourteen minutes to play when Callum Maltese won himself a free kick on the edge of the Soul Tower Hamlets box. Maltese took the free kick himself and whipped it over the wall and into the back of the net leaving Haidara no chance with possibly one of the goals of the season for The Stags.
Another substitution was made by the bench as we approached the final few minutes of the game with Lusher replaced by Mengou to try and see the game out now.
Since coming on, Arthur Massingham had been causing lots of problems for the Soul Tower Hamlets defence and after the goal, that threat just kept on coming with Massingham nearly earning himself an assist as the game came to a close.
Preston Knight went close to doubling our lead after Massingham’s chance, with the young defender volleying the ball off the end of Massingham cross from a corner, with the effort going just wide of the post.
The final moment of the game saw Ollie Williams enter the book after a late challenge.
The final whistle blew and Buckhurst Hill had just booked ourselves a place in the next round of the Errington Challenge Cup thanks to a wonderful free kick from Callum Maltese.
TEAM :
North 🧤, Foster 🟨, Edwards, Williams © 🟨, Knight, Fernandez, Nicolaou, Banfield, Lusher, Maltese ⚽️, Dolan
SUBS NOT USED :
Massingham (62’ – Nicolaou), Mengou (84’ – Lusher), Ferris (74’ – Banfield), Johnson (55’ – Edwards)