From the moment they all arrived on time at The Chequers car park, and got the matchday card signed before the match,  one could sense a change in the La Chiesa squad. Gone was the ramshackle tardiness that had marred the first half of the season, and in was a more professional approach to the task in hand. To coin a much used term in modern day sport, the boys looked 'focused'. Director of Football Dave Knowles gave the pre match instructions to the starting XI, and a new found belief seemed evident in the eyes of every player.

When Matt Gillham won a corner after just ten seconds, the tone for the first twenty minutes was set. La Chiesa were passing the ball well and controlling the tempo, without really troubling the Bryant goal, so it was completely aginst the run of play when Rovers took the lead. A stray pass from John Riley across the edge of the LCDC area, his only mistake of the morning, was driven first time past the helpless Danny Hardwick. La Chiesa had Hardwick to thank just a minute later when he produced a magnificent one handed save to deny Bryant a second, but their lead was not to last much longer. Danny Trew's partnership with Adam Jeffers up front has been a revelation recently, and when his shot was blocked, Trew was first to react, and rifled the ball past Sean Ryan into the bottom right hand corner from the edge of the box to level the scores at 1-1.

La Chiesa continued to boss the remainder of the half, 'Gaffer' Samuel Knowles twice going close with long range blockbusters, and Trew and Jeffers were two constant thorns in Rovers defenders sides. It was no more than LCDC deserved when they took the lead ten minutes before the break, and they did it in spectacular fashion. Matt Gillham was released down the left, and he unleashed a thunderous left foot strike that had Ryan beaten all ends up as it flew into the back of the net via the woodwoork. La Chiesa had chances to increase their lead further before the break, including mazy runs from Centre Halves Warren Hardwick and Riley, but at half time the score was 2-1.

Mark Harris' niggling hamstring injury was playing him up again, and he was replaced at the break by Cy Taylor, who could consider himself unlucky to be on the bench after his display at Woodford, with skipper Darren Hodsoll reverting to right back.

The second half began much like the first, with La Chiesa dominating without threatening to increase the score, but when Benny Gillham replaced his brother on the hour, he had an immediate effect on the match. The G-Man, as he is known by die hard La Chiesa followers, produced a canny chip from the left, and when Trew won yet another header, Adam Jeffers was first to it to lob the ball over the Bryant keeper and the line to make it 3-1 to the Hornchurch Boys. 

With the security of a two goal cushion, La Chiesa began to turn on the style. A three man, one touch move, started and finished by Hodsoll almost brought a fourth goal, and Terry Soteriou headed just over from a corner,  but their nerve was tested when Bryant pulled one back with 17 minutes remaining, a fantastic lobbed volley, that Hardwick did well to get anywhere, near made it 3-2.

Bryant then won a series of throw ins and corners that put the LCDC defence under immense pressure, and without the confidence of a league victory behind them, you started to wonder whether they might lose their bottle. An injury to Riley gave them a minute or two to regain their composure and some words of wisdom from Hodsoll seemed to settle La Chiesa down again. It was from another Bryant corner that La Chiesa restored their two goal advantage. The corner was cleared, Benny G won a fifty- fifty on the halfway line and found Colin Williams, who produced the latest in a long line of pinpoint passes to release Trew, who in turn dinked the ball over the advancing Ryan for his second of the match and LCDC's fourth. It was a classic counter attacking move, almost Arsenal like in its execution. Later it was discovered that it took just 8.4 seconds from the Bryant corner being taken to the ball ending up in their goal.

With five minutes remaining came the coup de gras. Cy Taylor found Knowles with an incisive pass on the right and he tricked his way past the Bryant centre half, and drew the goalkeeper before squaring to Trew, who tapped into the empty net from six yards to claim his hat trick, the first ever to be scored by a La Chiesa player. The game was over as a contest now, and depite some unecessary showboating by Knowles on his own six yard box, La Chiesa were home and dry.

All in all it was a magnificent effort from La Chiesa Del Corno. All thirteen players that took part has every right to be proud of theirselves, the difference made by having substitutes available, and the organisation of the team by Dave Knowles, who received a post match round of applause from the players and fans, cannot be overstated. It was the day when it all came together, every player had their best game yet for the club, and it paid dividends. Roll on next week and those darned Hammers of Woodford!

LCDC;(4-4-2); Hardwick; Harris (Taylor)  Riley, W Hardwick, Soteriou; Hodsoll, Knowles, Williams, M Gillham (B Gillham); Trew, Jeffers