Saturday 29 September 2018

Redbridge 1 Woodford Town 3

Essex Senior League Premier Division, Friday 28th September 2018


Woodford Town are up to seventh after they put in a dominant performance to defeat Redbridge at Oakside and make it back to back league wins in two days.

The teams came into this one with nine points each and sitting next to each other in mid table so a tight yet exciting contest awaited us.  The hosts had come back from two goals down in their last league outing to win at Southend Manor whilst Woodford had thrashed Sporting at Mile End, so both were looking for back to back league wins to hoist themselves into the top ten.

Well from the off the visitors took it to their opponents and after nine minutes found the net when after keeper Lewis Green was caught out on the by line, a ball squared across goal saw Samir Ali who tapped home and give the Woodford boys an ideal start.

That ideal start became even better four minutes later when Ali turned provider, muscling his way into the box before squaring across to Taku Mashingaidze who converted into the net and Redbridge were already up against it.

A group of sixteen men who had flow over from Sweden were present to support the hosts, but even their chanting of ‘Motormen’ failed to galvanise the hosts, and in fact it was the Woodford Towners on the far side of the pitch who had the most to cheer as their side continued to dominate and really should have been further in front.

Ali went close a couple of times whilst Temi Babalola flashed a ball across the area but no one could get anything on it were some examples of the chances they had, and the only sight of goal the hosts mustered was a half-headed effort at the back post which looped up into the air and was easily caught by visiting keeper Alex Reed.

The visitors spurned further chances before the break and were almost made to pay for this when Calvin Poku had a sniff for the hosts but his effort was blocked near the goal line and it meant the visitors went into the break with a fairly comfortable two goal cushion.

Half Time Redbridge 0 Woodford Town 2

The expected second half onslaught from the Motormen never materialised if truth be told and the visitors were more than comfortable with their two-goal lead.

They did send a point-blank header straight at keeper Reed in what was their best chance of the game, however the visitors were still fairly comfortable, but then things got worse for the home side when skipper Vinny Murphy was given a straight red for a challenge on the far side, and it meant the Motormen had to try and find a way back into the contest with a man short.

This looked almost impossible with twelve minutes to go when Woodford bagged a clinching third as Babalola burst through the home sides defence and slotted beyond Green to spark celebrations between himself, his team mates and the bench, they were heading for a second brilliant away win in two evenings.

Redbridge though gave themselves faint hopes of a remarkable comeback when with seven minutes remaining Brian Kyunga struck a wonderful effort into the top corner from all of thirty yards for what was the best goal of the game, the visitors had gone close to adding a fourth either side of this goal as well but it was now a two-goal cushion heading into the final stages.

Redbridge saw an effort, that by the way was heading straight for the bottom corner, deflect just wide, before Reed had t punch the resulting corner away, but this was the closest the hosts came to making a game of it to be honest.

Woodford saw a couple of effort flash across goal in stoppage time as they looked to put the icing on the cake with a fourth, but it had been a brilliant performance from them and they took all three points against a Redbridge side who were just not at the races in this one.  The result leaves them in 12th spot with the weekend fixtures to come.

Full Time Redbridge 1 Woodford Town 3









No comments:

Post a Comment