Soccer life suddenly seems considerably brighter for Ryman League Premier Division Billericay Town, who last night eased their way into the quarter-finals of the Essex Senior Cup with victory over Third Division promotion hopefuls Aveley.

Before the weekend, Gary Calder's men were in a slump which had seen them lose seven of their previous nine games at New Lodge and taste defeat in five of their last six matches in all.

All that changed on Saturday when they shocked the non-league world by comprehensively outplaying and beating former Nationwide League club Hereford United to earn a place in the FA Umbro Trophy last 32 with their first ever win over a Nationwide Conference outfit.

Billericay's joy was complete when Monday's draw saw them out of the hat to host arguably the best non-league club in the country, Rushden and Diamonds, on February 5 for a place in the Trophy quarter-finals and there's no doubt that they took the field with a renewed spring in their step last night.

Aveley would undoubtedly have wished that this tie had been played on one of the two dates arranged for it over the Christmas period, when postponements twice had to take place due to weather conditions.

At that stage Billericay's slump was in marked contrast to the fortunes of Aveley, who were sporting the last unbeaten record in the League.

Since then, last night's visitors have seen their Division Three fortunes slump with three defeats in four games and, to be honest, they were always playing second fiddle to Town last night.

Billericay took just nine minutes to go ahead when Paul Linger headed home Justin Gentle's left wing cross and made it 2-0 when Stafford Browne crashed home a second from outside the box 13 minutes later.

Aveley, to be fair, did their best to get back in the game with some spirited football, but it was all over when Browne grabbed his second and Billericay's third after 58 minutes and Kirk Game finished off a highly-efficient home performance with the fourth five minutes later.

Billericay now host Division One Romford on February 8 for a place in the semi-finals.

Rest of the draw: Clacton v Canvey; Purfleet v Grays, Southend United v Barking.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.