Essex Alliance League Senior Division, Wednesday April 6th
I was over at a sodden Cricklefield on Wednesday evening and saw braces from Adam Tabbani and Connor Braitewaite help Woodford East to a huge three points in a very entertaining win over Lymore Gardens to keep their Essex Alliance Senior Division title hopes alive.
To say East had a big week ahead of them was an understatement, they had this game against third placed Gardens before the small matter of hosting league leaders Chadwell Heath Spartans at the weekend, oh yer and then they had an Essex Premier Cup final to contend next week against Olympian Premier Sungate, so no biggie really.
East knew if they could win their games in hand they would only be a point behind the top two, so wins were a must starting in Seven Kings against a very decent Gardens side who realistically probably won't win the title but would still want to stay above East for now if they could avoid defeat in this one, although they would have been all out to try and win this one and put four points between them and their opponents and keep their outside title chances just about alive.
An East win here would make it twelve wins out of eighteen with just the one defeat, and take them above Gardens too into third and well on the heels of the top two with games in hand as already said, although conditions prior to kick off would mean it was sure to be a tough battle with monsoon rain, wind and a sodden pitch getting wetter by the second.
Kick off was then delayed by fifteen minutes after one of the officials went to Gardens normal home at Leyton Cricket Ground, but despite all of this we did eventually kick off around 8pm, so not to bad, who would adapt to the conditions better though?
The game was fairly tight but it was East who had the cutting edge up front, and after five minutes they edged in front when after the hosts had managed to clear the ball off the line, everyone seemed to stop as their appeared to be confusion as to whether the ball had gone over the line, everyone except Tabbani who played on to fire the ball home and remove all doubt, leaving Gardens looking at each other and wondering what had just happened.
Midway through the second period and East doubled that advantage when Braithwaite managed to force the ball home and just over the line despite a defenders best attempts to clear off it, and now East had a two goal cushion to take into the break, although this goal cued the heavens to reopen and dump more monsoon rain onto the pitch, which is just what the doctor ordered, not!!!
The pitch in fairness was playing pretty well and much better than I thought despite the look of it, and both teams were playing some good football on it too, which was very commendable, could Gardens get themselves back into the contest though?
Twelve minutes after the break, they did, as after a deflected free kick from outside the box was brilliantly saved by East keeper Alfie Watts, Gracia Muhemba was first to react to the loose ball and thump home from close range and give the home fans something to cheer, although those cheers were soon silenced as East responded to that goal in devastating fashion.
As just three minutes after conceding East saw a sublime pass from Frank Glock around a defender found Braithwaite perfectly into his stride, and the forward sent a finish under the onrushing keeper for a lovely goal and East had quickly restored their two goal cushion, the pass from Glock was worthy at any level of football, it was that good, and Gardens had to find another route back into the contest.
Six minutes later they did manage to bring the deficit back to one again though when Teriq Roberts drove into the box, cut inside onto his right foot, and then fired a decent effort past Watts at his near post, and the noise from the home contingent behind the dugouts rose again, and Gardens had a sniff once again in this contest.
It really had been a terrific game of football, and a great advert for the Alliance League as well, and one of the better games I had seen this season, but East did finally seal the win with just under twenty minutes to go when more superb play from Glock, seeing him charge down the left and although his cross/shot was blocked, Tabbani was on hand to fire the loose ball home and finally see off Gardens.
East therefore leapfrog Gardens into third and are now nine points off leaders Spartans with three games in hand, and of course that is ahead of their mammoth showdown at the weekend at The Marshes, if East win that then they really will start to believe they can overhaul Spartans and DTFC before the season is out, that's if they don't already believe that.....
Full time Lymore Gardens 2 Woodford East 4
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