Great Wakering 1, Oxhey Jets 1

GREAT Wakering face a trip to Watford tomorrow night after they were held to a draw at home to lower-league Oxhey Jets in the FA Cup.

The visitors actually took the lead at Burroughs Park on Saturday from the penalty spot after Rovers’ centre back Sam Lake was harshly adjudged to have tripped his man in the box.

But they leveled following good work from Nikki Beale down the left flank as he crossed for Michael Pinder to head home.

And the Green & Whites thought they had won it in injury time when Pinder had the ball in the net again, only for the effort to be ruled out as off-side.

Rovers boss Ryan Wilkinson said: “We were poor, our work rate was poor and our passing was not good enough.

“I know from the reports I’ve been getting that this side has been playing well recently, so it is disappointing.

“I don’t know what went wrong today, perhaps it was just a case of our players turning up an expecting to win, but you can’t do that at any level of football.

“And now we’ve got to drive for an hour and 45 minutes to play a game in Watford on a Tuesday evening, which we could all do without.”

Rovers were dealt a blow before a ball was kicked when they learned that Southend United loanee Jamie Stevens could not play for them in the FA Cup because the necessary paperwork has not been completed.

So he will again be unavailable for the return leg in South Oxhey tomorrow night.

Great Wakering: Godwin-Green, Artemi, Lake, Greenfield, Beale, Carlile, Sartain, Salmon, Frankis, Dewberry, Curran.