Essex Senior League
Ashton Stadium, Woodford
Admission: £7.00
Programme: Online Only, £1 charge
Attendance: 328
As I am one of the fortunate ones who do not have to work between Christmas and New Year, this was a game that I had long since pencilled in, as I would not have to worry about work the next morning. And whilst I applaud the club for having the initiative to play their home weekend fixtures on Friday nights, presumably to entice more people to attend their home games, it has made visiting less appealing for me since the ground's opening in August, as I usually have a long day out planned on Saturdays, and so this evening was a perfect opportunity to visit and thereby recomplete the Essex Senior League.
Although public transport is a decent option to use, with Woodford tube station about 15 minutes walk away, connections home for me would have been rather tight, and so I chose to drive, with plenty of spaces available in a car park immediately outside the ground. The current Woodford Town Football Club is the third to carry that name, with the current club formed in 2002 as Mauritius Sports, and after previous name changes to Mauritius Sports & Pennant, Haringey & Waltham Development and Greenhouse Sports, the club adopted the Woodford Town name in 2017. After groundsharing most recently at Broxbourne and then at Harlow, the club set about bringing football back to Woodford for the first time since 1993. Their initial first choice was to redevelop the original Woodford Town's home ground at Snakes Lane, which still lays vacant, but with too many obstacles to overcome, turned their attention to developing an athletics ground at Ashton Playing Fields, less than half a mile from the former Snakes Lane ground. And a lot of work has gone in to make the place homely, with the result it being a very smart, bright and inviting facility. Plenty of colourful club signage decorates the exterior of the clubhouse and around the entrance, which has two full height turnstiles and cabins for each one to pay admission at. Once inside, there is a tarmac area with a burger van to the right, and a grass area with picnic tables to the left. Beyond the picnic tables is the clubhouse, which is bright and fairly spacious inside, with full length windows along the front facing the pitch, and a couple of flat screens along the back wall showing live Premier League football. To the right of the entrance and burger van is a long metallic all-seater stand, with a capacity of about 350. Alas, it is indeed true that this is not a great place to watch football at, being very distant from the pitch, with a running track, long jump pit and grass between the spectator area and the pitch, and there is little elevation available, apart from a large grass mound beyond the stand, but this is just beyond the corner flag. Hard standing is available around the corner behind one end, and a further mound is also available to stand on, but this area is obviously even further away from the pitch. Spectators are not permitted along the remaining length, nor behind the end closest to the clubhouse. Another detracting feature of the ground is its location right next to the M11, which provides constant traffic noise. But whilst Ashton Stadium may not be great from a spectating point of view, the club deserves enormous credit for bringing football back to Woodford, and making the most of the facilities available, and it is nice to hear that the club tries plenty of initiatives to increase support, which certainly seems to have been rewarded with excellent attendances for the Essex Senior League. The atmosphere is also enhanced by near constant chanting and drumming by a small group in the stand, and a PA announcer who does his best to engage with those present, and there is a nice friendly feel around the place.
There was certainly some confusion regarding the programme for this evening's game. Woodford do usually issue printed programmes, and had confirmed on Twitter earlier in the day that they would be available this evening. And so it was surprising to see signs put up stating "no programs" (sic). However, it then transpired later on social media that a programme was produced for this fixture, but could not be printed due to the festive period. It was subsequently advertised that an electronic version of the programme could be downloaded from the website, but despite paying the £1 and later chasing, I only finally received the electronic programme in late March.
Woodford Town came into this game in 14th place in the league, following nine wins and a draw from their 21 league games so far, and had lost their last three league games, plus a cup game. So tonight would be a tough game against their very local rivals Redbridge, with just over two miles separating the two clubs, as the Motormen went into this game second in the table, following 14 wins and five draws from their opening 23 league games, although they were 13 points adrift of leaders Walthamstow, with a game in hand. In the reverse fixture back in August, Redbridge won 4-2.
On a mild and dry evening, the first half was a generally scrappy affair, with few chances created and neither keeper was really tested, apart from the Redbridge keeper having to come out quickly a couple of times to smother attacks, and a Redbridge shot which was deflected wide.
The second half saw some more attacking intent, and for much of it Woodford looked the likelier to break the deadlock, most notably on 58 minutes, when a long ball was played forward from deep inside the Woodford half for the striker to chase, running clear of the defence, but the Redbridge keeper came out to half clear the ball, but only to a Woodford player about 35 yards out, and with the keeper well outside his area, the Woodford player took a touch before chipping the ball goalwards, agonisingly over a defender's head, but it bounced back off the post. Four minutes later and Redbridge had a decent chance when a free kick was taken quickly and played forward to the right of the penalty area, and a low cross just evaded a tap in. On 71 minutes, following a lengthy injury stoppage, a Woodford free kick from close to the half way line by the byline was lofted into the area, headed on and a lashed shot went just wide of the far post from a tight angle. But after Woodford had had the better chances to open the scoring, it was Redbridge's turn in the closing five or so minutes as they pushed hard for a winner. On 85 minutes, a low driven shot went just beyond the far post with the keeper beaten, and on 88 minutes, the ball was struck over the bar on the stretch from about 8 yards out in a central position. In the first minute of added on time, Redbridge saw a powerful free kick excellently tipped over the bar at full stretch, and a minute later, a corner was met with a glancing header, which saw the ball fly just wide of the far post.
And so in the end, the points were shared, but both sides will wonder how they didn't put away at least one of their chances in the second half to claim all three points.
Video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here
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