An early brace from Petrit Elbi on his full-debut for the Millers paved the way for an emphatic league cup win at Mill Field.

Rashid Kamara extended the home side's lead just before the half hour mark with an excellent overhead kick from inside the box, sending Aveley into half time break with a comfortable 3-0 advantage.

There was not much of an improvement from the away side in the second half and an own goal from former Miller, Spencer Harrison, only added to the Premiership side's misery.

Second half substitute, Jordan Cox, won and converted a penalty deep into injury time to put the icing on the cake for the home side, who recorded their fourth win on the bounce along with their second straight clean-sheet.

With their F.A. Cup 4th Qualifying Round match against Chelmsford City on Saturday in mind, East Thurrock made 10 changes from the side that started the 2-2 draw with the Metropolitan Police two days previously. But, after winning seven games on the spin prior to the weekend’s draw, the mood in the East Thurrock camp would have been one of extreme confidence going into the match against Aveley.

Aveley, though, were starting to hit a bit of form themselves, after notching up their third straight win of the season on Saturday, along with their first league clean sheet of the season, and their newly found confidence showed in the early stages of this league cup tie, as they were dominating the possession and not allowing East Thurrock anything in the Aveley half.

With only seven minutes on the clock, the Millers carved out their first opportunity. Marcus Rose played the ball into the feet of Rashid Kamara who turned his marker easily before bringing the ball menacingly forward. The midfielder then played a cute pass into the path of Junior Appiah who opened up his body to strike a left footed effort which looped over the bar.

The home side continued to take the game to their Premier League opposition, and got their just reward on the quarter hour mark when Petrit Elbi scored his first Aveley goal.

Rose picked up the ball just inside the Aveley half, after East Thurrock had cleared, and played the ball inside towards Appiah. Appiah dummied the ball, letting it run for Elbi, before spinning round his marker and into the danger area. Elbi’s first time pass back to Appiah looked to have been dealt with by James Cook, but Elbi followed his pass and stole the ball off the toes of Cook before striking his effort across the face of Jamie Riley’s goal and in to give the home side a deserved lead.

Just four minutes later and Aveley had doubled their advantage, and it was Elbi again who got his second of the evening.

Paul Burnett was found in acres of space down the left hand touchline, where he cut inside before unleashing a shot across the face of goal. His effort was blocked, but the ball fell kindly to Elbi who took one touch to set himself before striking a low half-volley into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 after just 19 minutes.

The Millers were in scintillating form, with the away side not being given a sniff by the Aveley back line and with no sign of Aveley slowing down, and after 25 minutes the home side’s lead should have been extended when Burnett was played clean through. The winger beat the East Thurrock ‘keeper, Riley, to the ball leaving himself an empty net to aim at, but the Aveley man failed to hit the target and saw his effort hit the side netting.

Burnett and Aveley were not to rue that miss for long as they did extend their lead to three, four minutes after Burnett’s miss, through a delightful overhead kick from Rashid Kamara.

In similar fashion to Elbi’s second, Burnett was played into space down the left before cracking a shot towards goal. This time Burnett’s effort was saved by Riley, but he could only palm the ball straight to Kamara, who took one touch to knee the ball into the air before launching himself into an overhead kick that Riley had no chance of stopping with 29 minutes played.

It was a half of complete dominance from the home side who had restricted East Thurrock to long balls over the top, which were all comfortably gobbled up by Ronnie Worster in the Aveley goal, and the sides went into the break at 3-0.

With nothing to lose going into the second half, East Thurrock began playing considerably better than in the first half, and created their first clear chance of the match after 53 minutes.

Striker, Joe Keith, finally got in behind the Aveley back line and was clean through on goal with only Worster to beat, but just as Keith was about to pull the trigger, Luke Wilson dived in with a last ditch tackle to send Keith’s effort over the bar and away for a corner.

The East Thurrock response was to be short lived, however, as in the 65th minute the Millers made it four through a former Miller, Spencer Harrison, after the defender put the ball into his own net.

A free kick from the left was drilled in towards the far post by Wilson. Second half substitute, Jordan Cox, rose highest to head the ball towards goal, but saw his effort smash against the crossbar. However, the ball came down onto the retreating Harrison who could do nothing but see the ball deflect off his body and into the bottom corner.

East Thurrock, to their credit, continued to work and try and create something and managed two note-worthy efforts on goal in quick succession. In the 72nd minute a free kick from a central position from Keith was punched away by the diving Worster, and two minutes later Cook was played onside by Wilson and was one on one with the Aveley goalkeeper, but his low strike was well saved before being cleared to safety.

With the clock ticking down towards a comfortable win for the home side, and a night to forget for East Thurrock, deep into injury time Cox was sent clean through thanks to a defence splitting pass from Rashid Kamara. Cox got to the ball before the East Thurrock ‘keeper, who had come hurtling off his line, but Riley clipped the striker right on the edge of the box and the referee awarded the spot kick.

Cox picked himself up and brushed himself down to take the penalty, which he duly converted into the bottom right hand corner to seal an impressive 5-0 score-line.

After the game assistant manager, Victor Renner, said the performance tonight was “faultless” before continuing by saying “the past couple of games we’ve kept clean sheets, and we’re scoring goals. It’s a great formula at the moment and long may it continue.”

Marcus Rose said that “there’s a big buzz in the dressing room, with four wins on the bounce. It wasn’t that we done bad in the three losses (to Royston, Margate and Cheshunt), we were just unfortunate and it was five minute spells that killed us. Going into the next game with the four (wins) unbeaten run, I don’t think teams will be able to live with us and we’ve just got a big buzz about us now and the squad’s set.”

Aveley: Ronnie Worster, Marcus Rose, Alfred Kamara, Jay Leader, Luke Wilson, Danny Hopkins, Rashid Kamara, Billy Holland (c) (Sheldon Sellears 68’), Petrit Elbi (Jordan Cox 59’), Paul Burnett, Junior Appiah (Junior Dadson 74’)