Hornchurch fully focused on title bid says midfielder

Urchins head to Cray Wanderers on Sunday, having moved four points clear at the top of the table with a 4-1 win over Dulwich Hamlet in midweek.

That success came after a penalty shoot-out defeat in the FA Trophy at Leiston at the weekend, just days after their FA Cup replay exit at the hands of Aveley.

And having lost in the play-off final in the past two seasons under former boss Mark Stimson – to Cheshunt and Aveley – Saunders says they want to maintain their fine start under Steve Morison.

“Now we’re out of the FA Cup and Trophy, the focus is on the league,” he told the club website.

“We’re top of the league, great start, and we’ve just got to keep it going onto Sunday now.

“Big game again, astro again, but we’ve got to keep going, take each game as it comes and we look forward to Sunday.”

Having seen Morison named manager of the month for September, Urchins took the lead at Leiston thanks to a first-half penalty from Tom Wraight.

But Romford old boy Joe Chidyausiku levelled midway through the second half and Wraight missed a stoppage-time penalty.

Ryan Scott and Nathan Bertram-Cooper then missed from the spot as Urchins lost 9-8 in the shootout.

And they fell behind on Tuesday, after Liam Nash hit a post, when Sam Okoye broke into the box and fired home.

Saunders produced a fine crossfield pass to pick out Lennon Peake to fire home an equaliser just moments later, though, then took a short corner from his teammate before curling home a superb second soon after the restart.

Nash swept home a third from Ade Yusuff’s low cross, after a dummy by Saunders, and Yusuff then went it alone in the last minute to complete a good night’s work.

“We started well, even though we went a goal down, we responded really well,” added Saunders.

“Gaffer always tells us to switch the ball, if you switch the ball then we can counter on two-on-ones.

“I see Lennon open and he’s got a great left foot on him, great finish from him and he fully deserved it.”

As for his early goal of the season contender, his ninth goal in 91 league and cup appearances, he said: “We worked on it plenty of times, but that’s the first time I’ve probably had a chance to shoot like that.

“I was coming too far out and thinking ‘where am I going here?’ so I thought I’d better have a shot here and luckily I got a nice connection with it and it just flew in.”