Manford Way 1 Chingford Athletic 1

Essex Olympian League Division One, Wednesday April 28

Wednesday evening saw me over in Waltham Abbey and the Town Mead Leisure Park for the very first time to see Manford Way and Chingford Athletic do battle in an Essex Olympian League Division One contest, and it saw the points shared after a very good competitive contest.

Manford Way were technically the home side although the game was being played at Chingford’s home ground on the 3G at Town Mead, Manford Way sat second in the division as they chase promotion to the Premier Division, and a win here would see them close the gap to leaders Ongar Town to five points.

There form has been largely good since they resumed at the start of April, wins against Toby, Old Chelmsfordians and Shoebury Town, with their only setback a home loss to Snaresbrook, but they had netted eleven goals in those four games and only conceded five, with two cleans sheets too boot.

Chingford themselves were down in eighth after what had been a slow start to their campaign before the shutdown, but if they managed to take victory here, they would be only three points behind Manford Way in second place and continue their late season charge for promotion too.

That late charge is down to a terrific run of form since the resumption of the league, three wins and a draw which included an 11-0 home win over bottom side Shoebury Town where a certain Michael Mignot, who netted over 100 goals for Essex Senior Side West Essex, netted five in that one and his goals and general play have certainly helped Chingford to the form they have found recently, that is for sure.

These two sides meet again in ten days’ time back here at Town Mead when it is Chingford’s home game, so who would come out on top in Part One of this dual?

Chingford certainly had the majority of the first half chances, the best of them falling to Mignot, getting in twice down the right but firing his efforts across goal and just wide of the far post, whilst Manford Way’s best chance saw Ronnie Hobborough force a decent save out of Jake Anderson, but five minutes before the break Chingford struck.

A ball played into the area was scrambled clear but only to the waiting Will Gleeson who from about twenty yards out lifted a lovely ball back at goal, lobbing keeper Lewis Green and a defender on the post and the ball found the back of the net for a neat finish and a deserved lead for the visitors.

Manford Way though were to find a leveller in first half stoppage though when skipper Liam Burgess got down the left and produced a lovely cross into the six yard box where Robbie Rees was on hand to convert smartly and bring his side level and see the game all square at the break.

The second period was a more even affair but most of the action came right at the end, firstly Manford Way almost scored a very fortunate goal after a poor punch by Anderson, but soon after that Anderson pulled off a quite remarkable save to keep his side level, whilst Green had to be alert to save a header down the other end, but in the end the points were shared in what was a very good well contested game.

Full time Manford Way 1 Chingford Athletic 1

 

Let’s see how the table looks after that game…

Ongar Town will probably be the happiest with that point as it means they still hold a seven point lead over Manford Way who remain second, Chingford do move up a place to eighth and remain six points behind the opponents in what is a very congested division. These two meet again a week on Saturday, could be quite an important game.