Hullbridge Sports 2 Stansted 1

Pre Season Friendly, Tuesday 6th July

My first pre season game of the 2021/22 season saw me over at a familiar setting of the Hullbridge Sports and Social Club in Lower Road, Hullbridge, for a match up between Hullbridge Sports and Stansted.

I say familiar but since Bridge were promoted to the Isthmian North division back in 2018/19, when they beat Stansted to the title by five points, my visits to Lower Road have gotten less, and in fact my last visit there was pre season last summer, so that will hopefully change this coming season.

The game was played out on one of the back pitches as the stadium pitch is currently being readied for the new season, and after some light rain prior to kick off, it turned out to be a pleasant sunny evening if a little bit breezy, which is normal for this part of Essex!!!

Bridge were playing their second pre season of their build up to a third season at Step Four, and hoping this season would be their first one completed at this level after the last two were curtailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but they had more than held their own in those two shortened campaigns so they were hoping that this would be another solid one.

Stansted as mentioned were pipped to the Essex Senior League title by Bridge back in 2018/19, and in their two curtailed ESL campaigns since they had ended in sixth when 2019/20 ended and then were second behind Hashtag United last season when that was ended, so two very solid seasons to back up that close call prior to that with Hullbridge.

This game also saw two brothers up against each other, Mark Watters had joined the hosts management set up in the summer break whilst John Watters is of course in the management set up at Stansted, so brotherly love would be put to one side for ninety minutes at least in this one.

The hosts new forward line of Lewis Francis, Michael Mignot, Charlie Cole and Tony Martin certainly gave Stansted something to think about in the first half, and on twenty minutes one of those gave the home side the lead when an overhead kick back across goal was Cole send a close range header into the net, and then Stansted saw one of their defenders suffer an ankle injury meaning he had to be carried off the field after a lengthy delay being treated by both physios, I hope he makes a swift and full recovery.

Stansted though put these set backs behind them and levelled ten minutes into the second period after a good start to the second period as Jack Mitchell produced a wonderful half volley into the top corner from the edge of the box, it was an exquisite finish and the game was now in the balance.

But in stoppage time at the end of a contest that had been well contested and played hard but fair, Hullbridge netted a winner as Cole was on hand to prod home the loose ball inside the box for his second of the game and the winner for his side, maybe a draw would have been a fair result but results don't really matter too much in pre season and no doubt both sides would have taken a lot from this contest.

Full Time Hullbridge Sports 2 Stansted 1