The Bridge are not a team that does things the easy way, which can make things exciting or nerve-wracking, depending on how you look at it. The visit to bottom-of-the-table FC Clacton was another of those days when The Bridge should have been out of sight and heading back to Hullbridge with the 3 points comfortably tucked away but, as I say, The Bridge rarely do things the easy way.

Ultimately, the win that was eventually gained was as vital as I mentioned in the pre-match preview as it opened up an 11-point gap between the two sides and, with other results meaning that The Bridge were the only team to win in the bottom six, Hullbridge occupied 16th spot by the end of the day.

A tricky playing surface didn’t help the game, but The Bridge coped better early on and should have been out of sight by half-time. As it was, they reached half-time leading 2-1 and rueing some missed chances to kill the game before the second forty-five ensued. Owen Bellamy put the visitors ahead after just 15 minutes but, in true Bridge tradition of not doing things the easy way, just 4 minutes later the score was level when The Seasiders hit back through Harry Harvey. The Bridge were going to take the hard route despite being the better side, and they did restore their lead when Mechack Asuka put them back in front after 25 minutes. With more regular game time, Mechack is starting to find the net regularly and this was an important goal that kept The Bridge in front at half-time.

The half time score should probably have been 3-1 as The Bridge had a goal ruled out for offside despite the ball being headed back by a Clacton defender before it was tucked away. Jake Wiggins was sin-binned for protesting that the goal should have stood which made it a double blow to The Bridge cause and the single goal margin meant that it was all to play for in the second forty-five.

Surprisingly starting from the bench as he has been a source of goals for Clacton who don’t score too many, Emmanuel Ikwuegbu replaced Jack Payne after 56 minutes as The Seasiders tried to get back on level terms but it was The Bridge who were next on the scoresheet when debutant Iziah Antoine put the visitors 3-1 up after 66 minutes.

Debutant Iziah scorer of the winning goal

If we thought that was game, set, and match, we were proved wrong as Harry Johnson had other ideas, and with The Bridge taking that difficult route to victory, he reduced the deficit to one on 74 minutes.

This wasn’t one of the prettiest games you’ll ever see but The Bridge continued to put in the hard work and in the end, it paid off as nobody could find the net after that second Clacton goal and The Bridge took a deserved and vital away win to move them away from the lower end of the table. Once again, we are hoping that the win will kick-start The Bridge season as we near the end of 2024, and time will tell but this was a good three points and hopefully, there will be more to come as the season progresses. Benfleet at home and White Ensign away remain in 2024 and then there’s a whole lot of footie going on in 2025 and we’ll be there to watch it all unfold and, as ever,

A decent performance from Sam who was outstanding in the Hullbridge midfield and made a major contribution to the Hullbridge win. Major enough and outstanding enough to win him his first MOM accolade. Congratulations Sam.