After a poor first half littered with half chances, the second half burst into life when Tom Querry scored a lovely free kick 10 minutes after the break.

The away side pegged back their Ryman League opponents just past the hour mark when Reece Dobson capitalised on a mistake by Jason Willis to grab the equaliser.

A Shane Oakley penalty, followed four minutes later by Takeley captain, James Amott equalising from a set-piece, looked to be sending the game towards penalties.

That was before Petrit Elbi nodded home a Sheldon Sellears free kick in the second minute of added on time to send plucky Takeley home empty handed and the Millers through to the next round.

With Saturday's league fixture in mind at home to Heybridge Swifts, Justin Gardner made a number of changes to his starting line up for the game against the side from the Essex Senior League.

Despite early possession from the home side, Takeley from the Essex Senior League were not showing any signs of being overawed by the Ryman League opponents, and it was the away side who created the first chance of the evening.

After a late challenge from Tom Querry wide on the Takeley right, Reece Dobson drove in a free kick into the heart of the Aveley box. The free kick was met by Luke Millbourne who had his head in his hands as he saw his flicked header fly past the far post.

The early chance allowed Takeley to settle into the match, and they had an even better chance to take a shock lead just before the quarter hour mark.

A corner from the left was initially cleared to the edge of the box where Chris Hills was standing. Under pressure, the Takeley striker sliced his attempt on goal. The ball spun fortuitously towards Greig Taylor who was unmarked at the far post, but Taylor didn’t connect with the ball at all and saw the ball dribble harmlessly wide.

With the Millers failing to create any clear opportunities, Takeley were taking the game to the home side, and once again came close as Taylor was sent clear of the Aveley back line with a defence splitting pass.

The Takeley striker looked to have had only the goalkeeper to beat, but some brilliant back tracking from Andre Gumbs forced Taylor wide enough to allow Jason Willis to collect the ball at the striker’s feet, before he could pull the trigger.

As the clock ticked over to half an hour played, Aveley finally carved out some opportunities of their own, seeing three golden opportunities in quick succession come and go, all of them falling to Junior Dadson.

Dadson’s first effort came after being played clear down the left by Rashid Kamara. The Aveley wing-man’s first touch was poor, taking him away from the goal as opposed to towards it, and by the time Dadson managed to get his shot away he was smothered by two Takeley defenders.

Shortly after Dadson was once again played clear by Kamara, who had won the ball in the centre, but the Aveley man took his shot early and dragged it wide.

Less than a minute later Dadson was again clear down the right and one on one with the goalkeeper. Dadson dinked the ball over Ronnie Yates only to see his cute effort come off the face of the cross bar. The ball fell to Petrit Elbi, who took the ball under control before striking a shot towards goal on the turn which was saved by the feet of Yates before being cleared to safety.

With the home side finally looking to be getting a foot hold in the game, they were almost sucker-punched when Takeley created their two best chances of the half in the space of a minute.

With 39 minutes played, Hills, with the ball at his feet, ran at Sonuga before turning inside onto his right. Hills opened up his body to curl an effort towards goal which was well saved by Willis diving to his left before the ball was cleared.

However, the ball came straight back and Taylor found himself one on one with Willis. The Takeley man rounded the goalkeeper with ease only to see his effort cleared off the line. The clearance hit Willis and deflected to Millbourne whose first time effort was deflected over the bar by some last ditch defending, meaning that despite some decent chances the sides went into the break goalless.

With the home side failing to create the amount of chances that they would have expected against their Essex Senior League opponents, it was likely that something from a set-piece was going to be required to break the Takeley resistance, and so it proved as 10 minutes after the break the home side opened the scoring through Tom Querry.

A free-kick was awarded in a central position, about 25 yards from goal, after Kamara was having his shirt tugged. The left back stepped up to curl his effort beautifully into the net to the left of the goalkeeper, giving Yates no chance.

The goal was harsh on the away side who had looked the more threatening in the opening period, but they were made to pay for not taking their chances when presented with them, and just a couple of minutes later they were lucky not to have found themselves two behind when Sheldon Sellears forced Yates into a smart save, tipping Sellears’ long range effort over the bar.

Takeley were finally rewarded for all their endeavour as with 63 minutes players they found an equaliser through their number three, Dobson.

A raking pass down the Takeley right tempted Willis off his line, but Dobson beat the Aveley ‘keeper to the ball. The Takeley wing-back turned inside onto his left foot before arching his shot into the empty net to level the scores.

The goal gave the impetuous back with the away side, and they almost took the lead for the first time through Taylor, who forced Willis into a save from point blank range after the ball broke to him from a corner.

It was the home side, though, that were awarded the chance to retake the lead with 15 minutes of normal time remaining, when Aveley were awarded a contentious penalty for a foul on Scott Curley by Vinny Murphy.

The Takeley players were furious with the decision, converging on the referee imploring him to change his mind, but Shane Oakley stepped up to send Yates the wrong way to make it 2-1 after 75 minutes.

Justin Gardner would have hoped that his side could hold onto this lead longer than they did their first, but his wishes were short lived as Takeley equalised for a second time through their captain, James Amott.

A free kick from just inside the Aveley half was awarded after a foul by Kamara, who subsequently received a yellow card. The free kick from Murphy was floated in towards Willis’ left hand post where it found the head of Amott. The defender rose highest to head the ball across goal and into the bottom corner to make it 2-2 after 79 minutes.

With penalties looking inevitable, the Millers had one last attack provided to them by a late foul wide on the left. The free kick was whipped in towards the far post by Sellears, where he found Jordan Cox and Elbi rise highest above the Takeley defence. Elbi managed to get enough on the ball to divert it goal-bound, seeing his effort squeeze underneath Yates for the winner.

The late goal was harsh on Takeley who had been more than a match for the Millers on this late October evening, but it was the home side who progressed to the next round, quickly getting back to winning ways after defeat in the league on Saturday.

After the match manager Justin Gardner said "I'm not happy with the performance because I feel that, on paper, the players should have done better than what they did. Making it tough and scoring in the last minute to win it, we made hard work of it."

Speaking of the Takeley performance, Gardner commented "My background is from the Essex Senior League, there are no mugs in that league. They're going to come here to try and get a scalp and I thought they done well. Credit to them, they had some decent players."

Aveley: Jason Willis, Ellis Sands, Tom Querry, Andre Gumbs, Gbenga Sonuga, Sheldon Sellears, Rashid Kamara (Jordan Cox 81'), Danny Hopkins (c) (Scott Curley 69'), Shane Oakley, Junior Dadson (Carey Eastwood 75'), Petrit Elbi