La Chiesa's dreams of securing automatic promotion are over. Their failure to break down May & Bakers this week means the only chance of glory this season for the Hornchurch outfit is to beat Maze in the Arthur Atkinson Cup final on April 10th.

Chiesa were missing Colin Williams, Danny Trew and John Riley from the team that beat Stonewood in the semi final last week While Adam Jeffers took his turn on the bench. Cy Taylor, Dennis Peck, Steve McCarthy and Matt Gillham were the replacements, while Mark Harris' decision to rest his injured right leg meant a surprise return for Danny Hardwick. 'The Monk' had been absent from the Chiesa starting XI since the 2-0 victory over Barking Colts back in October, and was one of the few members of the side who can feel satisfied with their performance in a match in which Chiesa failed to sparkle.

May & Bakers have an appalling record against the Hornchurch Rossonieri, four defeats from four games in the last two seasons, but they have all been close encounters and they were no doubt thirsty for revenge to keep alive their own promotion hopes. The boys from 'Nam had the better of the chances in a first half where La Chiesa seemed content to pass the ball around without threatening an attack. Defender Robbie Still is a dangerous weapon for M&B at set pieces and the visitors were grateful to skipper Darren Hodsoll for a goal line clearance to deny the centre back a certain goal. Hardwick showed he was free from rust with a fantastic fingertip save towards the end of the half, while all Chiesa had to show for their forty five minutes was two half chances that Gillham blasted wide.

There was a real lack of urgency from Chiesa in the first half, and you had to think that hey would offer more in the second half but again they were lethargic. Maybe the boys were suffering a hangover from their exertions in last weeks vital match, but with cup final places up for grabs it was disappointing to see such basic mistakes commited time and time again. Dean Jordan and Samuel Knowles could not get a hold of the midfield, while Gillham and Peck up front were feeding off scraps. The defence were holding it togeether, but better finishing from Bakers' front men would have seen the game wrapped up long before Chiesa got started. The arrival of Jeffers twenty minutes from time seemed to liven Chiesa and he went close with a header from a corner and a lobbed effort that looped just over. Late on, Matt Gillham almost snatched all three points for LC/DC when he tried his luck from an outrageous angle only for his shot to narrowly fail to dip in time to trouble the keeper and the surpise scoreline of nil-nil was confirmed.

The sorry statistic is that Chiesa failed to trouble Bakers stand in keeper Sean Russel at all throughout the ninety minutes, and if you take away their second goal at Stonewood last week,  they haven't had a shot on target from open play fot nearly three and a half hours. Things must surely improve before the big day in a fortnight...

LCDC; (4-4-2) D Hardwick; Hodsoll, W Hardwick, McCarthy, Soteriou; Taylor (Jeffers), Knowles, Jordan, Gay; M Gillham, Peck