Great Wakering Rovers made a second half come back against Ilford to reach the quarter finals of the Peter Butcher Memorial Cup on Monday night at Barking.

Marcus Bowers made wholesale changes to his side after the famous FA Vase quarter final victory on Saturday, to give key players time to recover before their trip to Little Oakley on Saturday.

The first half started lacklustre for the Rovers, they struggled to keep hold of the ball and the passing was below par compared to how they’ve played recently. Ilford broke the deadlock after seven minutes when a midfielder managed to beat his man and crossed the ball into the back post where his teammate was there to head past the helpless Blockley into the bottom left corner.

This set back seemed to rejuvenate the rovers as they started to communicate with each other more consistently and passing began to more slicker and find their teammates down the channels.

Rovers finally drew level on thirty minutes, Ilford failed to clear their lines on the edge of the box when an attempted clearance was passed straight to Blanchfield who curled the ball into the six yard box where Billy Johnson was there to head the ball past the keeper into the bottom right corner of the goal.

Since then, Rovers had the best spell of the game after Ilford lost a little rhythm and started to keep more possession till the whistle went for halftime.

HALFTIME: ILFORD 1-1 ROVERS

The second half started out just how Rovers started the first half. Ilford kept recovering the ball from stray passes and their attackers were using the wings wisely to their advantage to deliver the ball into dangerous. Thankfully Ollie Jenkins and skipper Danny Cossington were having no nonsense and managed to keep Ilford at bay.

Rovers made some substitutions with an hour gone with Jake Gordon and Charlie Kendall joining the action and this proved to be the turning point of the game.

A poor clearance from the Ilford goalkeeper fell straight to Max Gnandi who squared it to Jake Gordon on the edge of the area and produce a brilliant curling shot into the bottom right corner, beyond the Ilford keeper’s reach to final put the Rovers ahead.

Ten minutes later, Rovers added their third of the match. Ilford gave the ball away in the midfield, the ball was played over the top to Jack Stone who was one on one with the Ilford goalkeeper, Jack Stone produced a stinging shot which the keeper did well to save but could only parry the ball into the feet of Max Gnandi who was there to tap the ball into the empty net.

The misery was piled onto Ilford with ten minutes to go when an out swinging corner was delivered from Jake Gordon who found Danny Cossington who scored a looping header into the top right corner of the goal, over a defender on the line.

Towards the later stages of the game, Rovers gaffer Marcus Bowers made a cameo appearance upfront and almost made an instant impact. A brilliant passing combination between Caiden Imbert-Thomas and Marcus Bowers released Jack Nolde onto the edge of the right midfield who produced a fantastic ground pass across the face of goal where Marcus Bowers was there to tap in but was flagged offside.

FULLTIME: ILFORD 1-4 ROVERS

That result means Rovers are through to the quarterfinals of the Peter Butcher Memorial Cup where they’ll face either Athletic Newman or Saffron Walden Town.

Next up for the Rovers will be back to league action on Saturday as they play away to Little Oakley.