Essex Senior League, Wednesday February 12th
It had been over a month since I'd covered any Essex Senior League action, so I decided to put that right and pop over to Cricklefield to see Ilford for the first time since their return to Seven Kings against promotion chasing Great Wakering Rovers.
It's been well documented the issues Ilford have had with other parties concerning Cricklefield, which meant they had to temporarily find another home as they were unable to use the main clubhouse which included the bar and changing rooms, but they have now built a clubhouse at the far end of the stadium, with the changing rooms in a building next to that.
This meant they could return to the ground as they had the required facilities to compete at this level, a welcome relief for all concerned no doubt involved with the club, and I must say the clubhouse is very spacious and serves everything you need, so kudos to them for getting all this sorted, it must have been a very stressful time for them all.
Tonight's game saw them welcome play off chasing Great Wakering Rovers, so they knew they would be in for a tough game, and after they had suffered a disappointing 4-3 home defeat to relegation threatened Sawbridgeworth Town at the weekend they knew that if they could bounce back and get a positive result here, it would not only put more daylight between themselves and the bottom two (currently twelve points) it would also take them only five points off the top ten.
Visitors Wakering though had suffered a rather mixed bag of results since Christmas and this had seen them fall out of the play off places, starting the evening in sixth and a point off those places, so just a point would take them back into the top five in goal difference, but they were obviously searching for all three points no doubt, and many expected them to achieve this in this game.
But this is football after all, and Ilford had other ideas, and after Rovers had had a decent start, and it looked only a matter of time before they grabbed an early lead, Ilford stunned their opponents by grabbing a 14th minute lead as a fortuitous bounce saw Foxes attacker Mo Nur Habib burst through on goal before providing a finish past keeper George Martin and into the bottom corner, advantage Ilford.
And it seemed to change the momentum of the game completely, Ilford gained so much confidence from edging ahead that they could easily have added to that lead, it took Rovers a good while to regain their composure it seemed, and they could have easily gone in level at the break as they created some openings towards the end of the half.
No doubt Bowers & Bunny would have got into their side at half time, they had not been themselves that was for sure and needed to improve after the break if they were to get the result they needed to get back into the top five, but, it was Ilford who doubled their lead just past the hour mark, as after the visitors were denied a penalty after a big shout for one, The Foxes won their own spot kick down the other end, and saw Greg Akpele convert, and the visitors had a mountain to climb just to get a point.
Ilford though were not to let Rovers climb that mountain and defended brilliantly as they had done the whole game, and were always a threat on the counter too, and despite almost ten minutes of added on time, Ilford comfortably saw out the contest to keep a clean sheet and grab a big win too, it just wasn't Rovers night and certainly a bad night at the office, they can play much better than this but are going through a sticky patch right now and will need to address this soon.
Full time Ilford 2 Great Wakering Rovers 0
There were two other games that did take place in midweek in the ESL, both on Tuesday, so let's quickly look at how those panned out:-
Barking 2 Takeley 1
Takeley lost at Mayesbrook Park for the second time in about a month as they fell to Barking, Sam Shaban gave the Blues a 31st minute lead and then doubled that lead with his second of the game with just under twenty minutes to go, George Powell did pull one back a few minutes after but it wasn't enough to prevent the hosts taking the win.
West Essex 2 White Ensign 2
The spoils were shared at Wadham Lodge as West & Ensign shared four goals, Reece Clarke gave West a 16th minute lead but Ensign responded through Riley Weir six minutes later, Zak Oliver then restored the hosts lead five minutes before the break, however, Ellis Deveraux levelled ten minutes after the break to make sure the visitors left with a point.
Right, let's check out the latest table heading into the weekend:-
Those midweek results saw Barking overhaul Wakering and replace them in the top five, and with Wakering's surprise loss at Ilford it means Barking stay in the top five, a point ahead of them, Takeley failed to close the gap to leaders Stanway after their loss at Mayesbrook Park, the the gap remains four points, and Ilford are up to 14th after their superb win at Cricklefield, they must be looking up now rather than down and a top ten position is closer now.
It was confirmed that two would go down recently, hence the relegation line is now above 19th, and those two spots are most likely going to come from the bottom three, who are well adrift of the rest, you cannot see any of the ones above being caught now with over half the games completed.
There is a full round of fixtures scheduled this weekend for the division, weather permitting of course, these are below:-
Saturday February 15th
Benfleet Vs Stanway Rovers
Buckhurst Hill Vs Barking
Frenford Vs Great Wakering Rovers
Halstead Town Vs Sawbridgeworth Town
Hullbridge Sports Vs Ilford
Little Oakley Vs Takeley
Romford Vs Saffron Walden Town
West Essex Vs Athletic Newham
White Ensign Vs FC Clacton
Woodford Town vs Stansted
That you all up to date with the Essex Senior League, thanks for reading!!!
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