Christmas came early for Steve Dowman's Clacton last night as they dumped Ryman League division one's Harlow out of the Essex Senior Cup 3-0.

The win earns them a quarter-final meeting at home against cup holders Canvey Island, who beat Tilbury 6-0 last night.

Clacton are well aware of the strength of Canvey after they knocked them out of the same competition last year at the semi-final stage.

Manager Dowman said: "I think the performance we put on was about the best we could play. We completely out passed them."

In driving rain and a swirling wind the Seasiders put on an excellent first half display of passing football.

And with first team regulars Jason Clewley, Paul Hillier, Jon Collins and Scott McKillop missing due to work commitments the scoreline is even more significant.

Harlow were played off the pitch in the first half and only had one shot on target as Clacton ran riot.

The Seasiders opened the scoring on 20 minutes with a cheeky goal from Glen Hepburn.

From a short corner the ball was driven in hard to the feet of the Clacton striker.

And with his back to the goal he casually back-heeled the ball past the keeper from six yards out.

Soon after Hepburn again troubled the Harlow goal with a header that was narrowly tipped over the bar.

But with the Seasiders' domination another goal wasn't long in coming - and it was Hepburn again who added to his tally.

Mark Farthing knocked the ball in from the right and Hepburn netted with a powerful header.

And he should have secured his hat-trick before the interval when he was clean through on goal with only the keeper to beat.

But as he homed in on target the ball came to stop in the mud as he carried on running.

Harlow came more in to the game in the second half but they never looked liked scoring or exerting any pressure on the Clacton goal.

As the game went on the the Seasiders created a number of chances. One of the best came from a Mitchell Springett free-kick which the keeper just saved.

With the match drawing to a close David Gray came on as a substitute and made his mark on the game by grabbing the third goal.

Gray took a corner and the ball came back out to him, he beat his marker ran in to the box and hammered in a well taken goal with ten minutes to go.

This killed off the game and and rounded off an excellent performance from the Seasiders.

Dowman said: "It was a great performance. The lads were really up for it and it showed.

"We now face Canvey who knocked us out at the semi-finals last year.

"We haven't had an easy route, we had to beat both Leyton Orient and Harlow to get to the quarter finals.Now we have Canvey who are the favourites for the cup. But we will be really up for it."

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