It’s been a while since the last round of The Peter Butcher Memorial Trophy and much has happened since then, so let’s do a quick recap of where we are with this competition and then continue with the usual review stuff…

We left the competition back in October where The Bridge went through from the First Round with a 3-2 win over Stanway Rovers. The other quarter-finalists are Halstead Town v Great Wakering Rovers, FC Clacton v Saffron Walden Town & Romford v Little Oakley. Needless to say, this is the last chance for The Bridge to win a trophy this season. All the quarter-finals are being played on the same day, so we will know who the semi-finalists are by the end of Tuesday night and fingers crossed The Bridge are one of them!

Woodford Town are currently 2nd in the ESL. They have 48 points from 20 matches with 15 wins, 3 draws, and just 2 defeats. Goal difference is a healthy +32, with 45 scored and 13 conceded. That’s the number one defence in the league! Unsurprisingly, away form is good too, with 9 wins, 1 draw, and 1 defeat from their 11 matches. 25 for and 6 against gives The Woods an impressive +19 GD.

Who were the two defeats against I hear you ask (that was you wasn’t it?). As you’re asking…3-2 at Frenford in September and 0-1 at home to Saffron Walden Town on November the 1st.

Here’s what Woodford Town have been doing in their last six matches…
WOODFORD TOWN – season 24/25 – The Last Six
(most recent results first)
Woodford Town 2 Buckhurst Hill 2
The big derby match saw The Woods lead 2-0 until the 65th minute when Tyreece Robertson scored twice (65 & 87 minutes) to claw The Stags back into the match. David Gokou-Siakouri had put Woodford 1-0 up and Jude Carolan’s OG had made it two before The Stags fightback.

Barking 1 Woodford Town 2
A decent away victory for The Woods who trailed The Blues 1-0 after a 10th-minute Juwon Akintunde goal. A double from David Gokou-Siakouri in the second half gave Woodford the points. Barking’s Sam Edwards was red carded in the 85th minute.

Woodford Town 2 Frenford 1
Nathan Sollosi and Bruno Tavares give Woodford a 2-0 lead that Samuel Ince reduces in the 71st minute but The Woods hold on to take the points.

Woodford Town 3 West Essex 0
Oliver Travell is sent off for West Essex in the 28th minute and that doesn’t help their cause as Woodford bang in three from Marko Protic, Sam Owusu and Bruno Tavares with a penalty.

Hullbridge Sports 1 Woodford Town 3
A contentious match at Lower Road sees Owen Bellamy put The Bridge in front with a 4th-minute penalty before Kahlil Kirwan-Meade scores a 13th-minute equaliser. Oscar Jones is sent off on 55 and Woodford make the advantage count with David Gokou-Siakouri on target in the 60th minute and Sonny Shilling killing the game in the 82nd. Emmanuel Martins is sent off in injury time.

Ilford 0 Woodford Town 2
A fairly straightforward away win for The Woods with both goals coming from Nathan Sollosi.

First Team Squad & appearances:
Player Appearances
1 David Gokou-Siakouri 17
2 Sam Owusu 17
3 James Jewers 15
4 Miles Mitchell-Nelson 15
5 Marko Protic 15
6 Manny Agboola 14
7 Michael Agboola 14
8 Josh Banfield 14
9 Kahlil Kirwan-Meade 14
10 Emmanuel Martins 14
11 Sonny Shilling 14
12 Nathan Sollosi 14
13 Luke Steele 12
14 Georges Kebi 11
15 Marcus Painter 10
16 Micah Jackson 9
17 Dion Johnston 9
18 Max Harbrow 7
19 Eddie Allan 6
20 Chaynie Burgin 6
21 Jaydon Charles 6
22 Ernest Okoh 4
23 Conor Tyrrell 4
24 Billy Karby 3
25 Andre Anderson 2
26 Enock Soganile 2
27 Bruno Tavares 2
28 Peter Angelov 1
29 Steven Carvell 1
30 Tashan Richmond 1

Last Season:
Woodford Town finished 2nd behind champions Tilbury and were beaten 5-4 on penalties in the play-offs by Sporting Bengal United after the game had finished 1-1. The Bridge finished in 12th.

The teams met twice during the season.

Game one was on the 8th of September 2023 and was a draw at Ashton Playing Fields. The game finished 1-1 with midfield maestro Jon Evans scoring for The Bridge and Jaedon Phillips equalising in the 92nd minute for Woodford.

Game Two at Lower Road on the 15th of December 2023 was also a draw but this time it was 0-0.

This season:
Hullbridge Sports 1 Woodford Town 3
A contentious match at Lower Road sees Owen Bellamy put The Bridge in front with a 4th-minute penalty before Kahlil Kirwan-Meade scores a 13th-minute equaliser. Oscar Jones is sent off on 55 and Woodford make the advantage count with David Gokou-Siakouri on target in the 60th minute and Sonny Shilling killing the game in the 82nd. Emmanuel Martins is sent off in injury time.

Club Facts:
Founded: 2002
Ground: Ashton Stadium, Woodford Green
Chairman: Tony Scott
First Team Manager: Shane Baptiste
First Team Coach: Tom Jewers
First Team Kitman: David Chambers
First Team Physio: Sufyan Mukhtar

Club History
Woodford Town Football Club are based in Woodford in the London Borough of Redbridge. They are currently members of the Essex Senior League and play at Ashton Playing Fields.

Story of 'The Woods' since 1937
THE EARLY YEARS
Woodford Town Football Club was established in 1937, and were founder members of the Delphian League. In 1950 we lost 7-1 to Colchester Utd in the 4th Qualifying round of the FA Cup in front of a ground record of 7000 at Snakes Lane. The superbly named Johnny Bee stung our illustrious opponents into action with a sensational 9th minute strike before all hopes of a famous giant killing were cruelly swatted in the second half.

Amongst noticeable players to grace the white Woods shirt was a certain Johnny Haynes soon to leave an indelible mark on the game at Fulham and England and later given legendary status as Football’s first £100 a week player at a time when wages regularly failed to reach the minimum wage of the time.

In 1961 we switched to the Metropolitan League, before joining Division One of the Greater London League in 1967. We left the Greater London League at the end of the 1968–69 season and rejoined the Metropolitan League in 1970.

The 1970's
At the end of the 1970–71 season, we joined Division One South of the Southern League but left after a single season in which we finished bottom of the table. We joined the Essex Senior League in 1976, before switching to the Athenian League in 1979.
The 1980's
We rejoined the Southern Division of the Southern League in 1982 where illustrious Tottenham Hotspur International duo Jimmy Greaves & Joe Kinnear were among a number of eye-catching signings, albeit in the twilight of their careers.

Amazingly we played in the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1986 losing 4–0 to Piacenza in the semi-final and then 3–2 to Merthyr Tydfil in the 3rd Place play-off, the former game featured on Italian TV.

After finishing third in 1986–87 and reaching the first round of the FA Cup for the first time, we dropped back into the Essex Senior League at the end of the season.
Despite the disappointment Woodford had put themselves firmly on the football map succumbing only to a very late Colin Foster goal against Leyton Orient in the aforementioned match in front of another bumper gate at Snakes Lane, a game after which star striker Paul Williams was transferred to Charlton Athletic for an undisclosed sum after an eye-catching display on a bumpy surface very much of the day.
The 1990's
In 1993 we lost our Snakes Lane ground and transferred to Division One of the Spartan League, which merged into the Spartan South Midlands League in 1997, with Woodford placed in the Premier Division South.

However, we left the league in 1998 and dropped into the London Intermediate League, before returning to the Essex Senior League in 1999. We remained in the league until being voted out in 2003 after finishing bottom of the league for three seasons in a row.
The 2000's
In 2017 we returned to the Essex Senior League reverting back to our original name – Woodford Town Football Club.

Despite nomadic spells at Broxbourne Borough and Harlow Town ‘The Woods’ began to attract interest for their attacking, youth-based playing style which saw Teenagers Ryley Scott and Jaden Brissett picked up by Ipswich Town and Brentford respectively and their unique fan base establishing itself amongst the most loyal and noisiest in Non-League Football.

The link with football history didn’t stop there either as Woodford Town won a thrilling FA Cup tie v London Colney in front of 375 fans at the Harlow Arena on 31st August 2020. The singular Friday night fixture goes into the record books as the only time The FA Cup has ended and started in the same month, a slice of football trivia unlikely to be repeated.
In 2023–24 Woodford were runners-up in the Essex Senior League, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. They were knocked out at the semi-final stage, losing 5–4 on penalties to Sporting Bengal United after a 1–1 draw.

Ground
The club played at Waltham Forest's Wadham Lodge ground in Walthamstow until 2011, when they moved to Coles Park in Haringey to ground-share with Haringey Borough. In 2016 they moved to the Terence McMillan Stadium in Plaistow before starting a groundshare with Broxbourne at Goff's Lane for the 2017–18 season. The club relocated to the Harlow Arena prior to the 2018–19 season and announced their intention to return to Woodford at Ashton Playing Fields for 2020.

The club were due to move into Ashton Playing Fields in November 2020, however new lockdown measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England postponed the club's return to Woodford. The stand at the new ground is named the 'Jas Athwal Stand' in recognition of Jas Athwal, the Labour Party politician and Leader of Redbridge Council, for his contribution to bringing the club home to Woodford. On 13 August 2021, Woodford played their first game at the stadium, losing 2–1 against Stansted in front of 822 spectators.

Records
Best FA Cup performance: First qualifying round, 2013–14, 2023–24
Best FA Vase performance: Second round, 2011–12, 2015–16, 2022–23, 2023–24

If we’re talking colours, there’s a lot more green in the Woodford form guide!
That points to bad news because the form guide is:
The Bridge: 2 wins; 0 draws; 4 defeats; For 10; Against 18; GD -8; Points 6
Woodford: 5 wins; 1 draw; 0 defeats; For 14; Against 5; GD +9; Points 16

That’s all a bit scary but maybe we can’t judge it completely on form as, it being one of the smaller cups, you can't always tell what the line-ups will be. I’m consoling myself with that thought anyway and the fact that The Bridge were good in their last game and unlucky to come away with nothing from the trip to Athletic Newham and that Woodford haven’t played since December the 27th and that we’re at home and…well, you get the picture. Sure, Woodford are the favourites but it’s the cup at Lower Road under the lights and you never know, and if it’s a draw it goes to penalties, just saying and I’m also just saying…