Essex Senior League, Wednesday 24th January
I took in some local midweek action and popped over to Great Wakering for an Essex Senior League match up between White Ensign and Hullbridge Sports, the visitors not having to far to travel to this one, making the 11 mile trip over from the village of Hullbridge to the village of Wakering, so as well as this being an important league match, it was also a local derby too.
The two sides may only be eleven miles apart but they are certainly miles apart in terms of what they are looking to achieve and what they can achieve this season, the hosts have a very young squad currently and are looking to just continue to establish themselves at this level, they began this one fourth bottom of the table but way clear of the bottom two teams and were more looking up than down if truth be told, a midtable finish by the end of the campaign would be a very good result for this club.
Their opponents on the other hand have much loftier and realistic ambitions, they of course were relegated from the Isthmian North last season and are expected by many to be challenging for at least a play-off spot come the end of the season, they began the evening in eighth spot and four points off these positions, so a win here would take them even closer to those top five positions.
Now this was Ensign's first home game since November 18th when they recorded a 3-1 home win over bottom side Coggeshall Town, but since that win they have played seven games away from Burroughs and only recorded one win in those games, a pretty impressive 1-0 win against West Essex at Wadham Lodge, and even though they had lost five of those seven games, three of those had only been by the odd goal, so they were in a lot of their games but just falling the wrong side of those contests.
The weekend did see them lose 6-0 at Barking although three of those goals came in the latter part of the contest when they were down to ten men due to an injury, but they desperately wanted to grab victory over their higher placed opponents who were themselves going for back to back wins on the road after their late comeback win at The Terry Mac against Athletic Newham at the weekend.
The new year had seen Hullbridge starting to find some form again after a pretty ordinary run before that, they netted five at struggling Ilford in their first game of the new year so they had netted back to back victories away from home headed into this one but no doubt they were hoping the new year would bring a upturn in fortunes and a charge for promotion straight back to Step Four in the non league pyramid.
Now this was the first meeting between the sides this season, the return game at Lower Road isn't till the end of March, and this contest was only five minutes old when the hosts got their noses in front, it wasn't the best defending from Bridge that was for sure, and hesitantly at the back allowed Ensign's Ezekiel Bademosi to lob an effort a stranded Lamar Joseph-Johnson in the visitors goal.
The visitors had started the game the better of the two as well so it was no surprise that they found a quick leveller as only eight minutes more had elapsed when a cross swung in from the right found Zayshaun Asamoah who planted a very decent header beyond the outstretched arm of hosts keeper Harry Fairs, finding the bottom corner and quickly bringing this contest back to level terms.
Bridge thereafter created the better of the openings, striking the woodwork twice before the half was out and having quite a few sights of goal, but they could not find the net, Ensign did create a couple of decent efforts themselves but they would certainly have been the happier of the two sides at half time, the second half was a bit more of a scrap as both sides tried to grab an advantage.
The visitors though were again creating the better opportunities but were wasteful in front of goal, and in the 81st minute paid for not finding the net when they fell to what proved to be the winner as a ball into the box saw keeper Joseph-Johnson and hosts centre half Nathan Wilson challenge for the ball, Wilson managed to get to the ball first and the loose ball fell to Austin Smart who produced the finish to put Ensign ahead.
Hullbridge only had themselves to blame for losing this one, they struck the woodwork again in the second half and also somehow had one off the line in the dying moments, and hosts keeper Fairs also produced two brilliant stops to keep them out, it just was not the visitors day (or night) in front of goal, and the hosts showed superb character and battling qualities to dig in at times and then pounce when a chance came their way, the one thing this young team have is heart, and they showed that in abundance this evening.
The result means that Ensign climb a couple of places to 15th and are eight points off a mid table position now, Hullbridge remain four points off the top five and will be very disappointed to have lost this one, Ensign though would have been delighted to get one over one of he big boys in the division as they recorded a very big and satisfying win here.
Full time White Ensign 2 Hullbridge Sports 1
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