Match Officials
• Referee: Tony King
• Assistant: Simon Brickwood
• Assistant: Lily Priest

Match Preview: The Bridge v West Essex
It’s another home match for The Bridge against mid-table opponents, West Essex, as they try to break that horrible streak of losses.

West Essex have 19 points from 15 games having won 5, drawn 4, and lost 6 of that 15, scoring 22 and conceding 22 for a nice round zero GD. On the road, they have yet to win, drawing 3 and losing 2 of their 5 games played. That away record puts them in 18th place in the ‘away table’ just above The Bridge and Benfleet. Contrastingly, The Bridge are 14th in the ‘home’ table with 8 points from 10 matches.

West Essex – season 24/25 – The Last Six
(most recent results first)
West Essex 3 Sawbridgeworth Town 0
No problem for Essex in their last outing, with this 3-0 victory over lowly Sawbo. Jaedon Phillips, Vanadiny Junior Mendes, and Yemi Adelani were all on target.

White Ensign 2 West Essex 0
Essex bowed out of The FA Vase at the second round stage with this defeat at White Ensign who won it with goals from Taylor Jacobi and Riley Weir (who I’m reliably informed is a player and not a trading estate just off the A129!).

West Essex 2 Halstead Town 1
A bit of a late show in this one as Halstead were in front through a Dean Ager penalty before Essex salvaged it in the 78th and 79th minutes. Yemi Adelani and Joe Damrell were the salvagers.

Athletic Newham 2 West Essex 2
A decent draw at Newham who are a tough team to get points from. Jaedon Phillips put Essex one up before Alex Kozak and Leonardo Luis De Carvalho Pedro gave Newham the lead. Yemi Adelani scored the equaliser in the 91st minute.

West Essex 0 Takeley 0
Another decent draw against a top side. No goals but another point on the board for Essex.

Brimsdown 0 West Essex 2
FA Vase First Round success for the Essex boys who win at Thurlow Nunn League First Division South (Eastern Counties League) Brimsdown (level 10). The goals came from Oumar Ndao and Oliver Travell.

First Team Squad:
Player Appearances
1 Lewis Edwards 20
2 Nathan Brathwaite 17
3 Greg Frederick 17
4 Joel Lamb 17
5 Yemi Adelani 16
6 Mitchell Arthur 15
7 Matt McDowell 15
8 Balla Ndao 15
9 Jaedon Phillips 12
10 Oliver Travell 12
11 Ed Plackett 11
12 Oumar Ndao 10
13 Harry Norman 10
14 Ryan Ramsay 10
15 George Forrest 9
16 Argest Nela 9
17 Zak Oliver 9
18 Darnell Asare-Williams 8
19 Sanchez Hardy 8
20 Palvy Manduakila 8
21 Christopher Ozougwu 8
22 Vanadiny Junior Mendes 7
23 Pascal Thornton 7
24 Jadon “Kojo” Ata-Gyamfi 6
25 Jayden Alexander 4
26 Bleron Ademi 3
27 Ben Joao 3
28 Joe Damrell 2
29 Louie Mallandain 2
30 Ola Ayoola 1
31 Levi Burgin 1
32 Tyler Oliver 1
33 Armani Orji 1
34 Kris Ozols 1
35 Mekhi Roberts 1

Last Season:
West Essex finished 13th in the ESL last season. The Bridge finished one place higher in 12th.

The teams met three times during the season.

Game one was on the 16th of September 2023 and ended in a 2-2 draw, with Bobby Badham and Jason Banton scoring for The Bridge and Ruban Bartlett-Antwi and David Bell getting the two for Essex.

Game two on the 23rd of December 2023 was also a draw, finishing 1-1. Michael Dixon scored for The Bridge and Zak Oliver scored the Essex goal.

Additionally, the two sides met in The Peter Butcher Memorial Trophy 2nd Round and The Bridge won with a 13th-minute Adam Topley penalty.

This Season:
The teams met in the BBC Essex Senior Cup Round 1 at Wadham Lodge and it was a night to forget for the Bridge who lost 6-0. Goal scorers were many; Jaedon Phillips with 2, Matt McDowell, Josh Lamb, ex-Bridge man Palvy Manduakila, and Argest Nela with a penalty.

Club Facts:
Founded: 1989
Ground: Wadham Lodge, Walthamstow
Chairman: Mark Penfold
First Team Manager: George Karsa
Assistant Manager: Michael Walther
First Team Coach: Josh Rogers
First Team Goalkeeping Coach: Luke Adams

Club History
West Essex FC are based in Highams Park, East London. The club caters for players of all ages and abilities with 2 senior sides, 3 veteran’s sides, 2 Sunday teams, and a successful and rapidly expanding Colts section. The brainchild of former West Essex Cricket Club stalwart John Spinks, West Essex FC formed in 1989. Initially, the objective was to keep some of the Cricket Club members in touch throughout the winter and generate a bit of much-needed income through the club bar on a Saturday afternoon.

As we entered the new millennium, founder John Spinks left for the Emerald Isle and Stuart Higson took over the day-to-day running of the club. The current chairman is Mark Penfold with Tony McNally appointed Vice-Chairman.

In 2021, West Essex entered a ground-sharing agreement with Walthamstow to use Wadham Lodge as their ground. Prior to this, the club had been sharing with Barking at Mayesbrook Park in Dagenham.

Honours
Middlesex County League
Premier Division Champions 2015–16
Division One (Central & East) champions 2010–11
Premier Division Cup winners 2013–14
Essex Business Houses League
Division One Champions 2008–09
Senior Cup winners 1996–97
Ilford & District League
Premier Division champions 1990–91, 1992–93
League Cup winners 1992–93
Fenton Cup winners 1990–91
Spartak Cup winners 1989–90

Records
Best FA Cup performance: Preliminary round, 2017–18, 2018–19
Best FA Vase performance: First round, 2018–19

I’m running out of things to say in this part of the review so let's go with the obvious!
Have a glance at the form over the last five matches, shown below, and it gets a bit scary.
• One draw and four defeats for The Bridge v three draws and two wins for Essex
• No clean sheets v two clean sheets
• The Essex wins came against teams low in the table but the draws are quite impressive

No matter what you say, none of the facts are good, even though some of the Bridge performances have deserved better. At the end of the day, it's a results business and we just haven’t been getting the results. At some point, our fortunes must turn and we have to keep believing. OK, no more negativity, all we can do is give the boys our support and trust them to do the rest, so it’s time to fill Lower Road as much as possible and get behind the lads to drive them onto victory because as ever…