The Tom Ranger equaliser on Saturday at Stansted probably means that The Bridge have done enough to ensure ESL Premier League football for next season, so the pressure is off a bit as we travel to West Essex, er, East London (OK, I know I've done that joke already!). Still, a win would be nice though!

West Essex are 11th in the ESL table. They have 37 points from 31 matches, with 10 wins, 7 draws, and 14 defeats. The goal difference is -10 with 45 scored and 55 conceded. Home form is not bad and 10th best in the division, with 7 wins, 2 draws, and 6 defeats from their 15 matches. 24 for and 21 against gives the Essex Men a +3 home GD.

Here’s what West Essex have been doing in their last six matches…
WEST ESSEX – season 24/25 – The Last Six
(most recent results first)
Benfleet 0 West Essex 2
Benfleet finally managed to get a game on at Woodside Park and promptly lost it to a goal in each half from the visitors with Yemi Adelani finding the net in the first half and Jaedon Phillips doing likewise in the second.

Great Wakering Rovers 1 West Essex 0
A Max Gnandi goal is enough to give GWR the home points, with Max taking just 6 minutes to find the net after coming on as a 64th minute substitute.

FC Clacton 0 West Essex 3
A straightforward away win at the Rush Green Bowl for Essex who are 1-0 up at half-time thanks to a Jaedon Phillips penalty and add two more in the second half from Zak Oliver and Nathan Brathwaite.

West Essex 0 Woodford Town 1
A solitary Nathan Sollosi goal for the visitors is enough to keep Woodfords’s promotion chase on track as The Woods take a narrow victory.

West Essex 3 Athletic Newham 0
A struggling Newham are trounced 3-0 by the hosts with goals from Jaedon Phillips, Jayden Alexander and Jack (not Jayden/Jaedon) Martin.

West Essex 2 White Ensign 2
A rare draw for the Essex Boys and a good one against decent opponents, Ensign. Reece Clarke opens the scoring for Essex before Riley Weir equalises. Zak Oliver puts Essex back in front just before half-time and a second half second equaliser from Ellis Devereux sees the teams share the points.

Player Appearances
1 Lewis Edwards 35
2 Mitchell Arthur 29
3 Nathan Brathwaite 29
4 Yemi Adelani 28
5 Matt McDowell 28
6 Greg Frederick 27
7 Harry Norman 26
8 Balla Ndao 24
9 Jaedon Phillips 23
10 Oliver Travell 23
11 Zak Oliver 21
12 Joel Lamb 19
13 Vanadiny Junior Mendes 19
14 George Forrest 17
15 Oumar Ndao 17
16 Bleron Ademi 15
17 Palvy Manduakila 13
18 Ed Plackett 13
19 Darnell Asare-Williams 11
20 Reece Clarke 11
21 Ramzi Mahmoudi 10
22 Ryan Ramsay 10
23 Jayden Alexander 9
24 Argest Nela 9
25 Sanchez Hardy 8
26 Jack Martin 8
27 Christopher Ozougwu 8
28 Pascal Thornton 7
29 Jadon “Kojo” Ata-Gyamfi 6
30 Joe Damrell 5
31 Ben Joao 3
32 Louie Mallandain 2
33 Joseph Agunbiade 1
34 Ezra Agyiri 1
35 Andres Ascanio 1
36 Ola Ayoola 1
37 Levi Burgin 1
38 Almame Ly Athie 1
39 Emmanuel Nwosu 1
40 Tyler Oliver 1
41 Armani Orji 1
42 Kris Ozols 1
43 Mekhi Roberts 1

Links: Amongst the 43 players listed above are some names that are common to both teams although only George Forrest is currently in the Essex line-up. Darnell Asare-Williams (or Darnell Williams as we know him) is of course currently playing up front for the Bridge. Also on the list but no longer part of the current Essex line-up are Palvy Manduakila and Mekhi Roberts who have turned out for The Bridge in the past.

Founded: 1989
Ground: Wadham Lodge, Walthamstow

Chairman: Mark Penfold
First Team Manager: George Karsa

CLUB HONOURS & RECORDS
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

Best FA Cup performance: Preliminary round, 2017–18, 2018–19
Best FA Vase performance: Second round, 2024–25

The Football History Database goes back to 2016/17 and for all of that time West Essex have been members of the Essex Senior League Premier. Two of those seasons were abandoned due to Covid, so their performances have been:
2016/17 13th
2017/18 7th
2018/19 13th
2021/22 13th
2022/23 10th
2023/24 13th
So, they like finishing in 13th!
This season they are currently 13th,11th (it nearly worked!)

The Bridge and West Essex– recent meetings:

Season 2024/2025
Tuesday 1st October 2024
West Essex 6 The Bridge 0
BBC Essex Senior Cup First Round
Possibly one of the worst results of the season for The Bridge as they bowed out of the Essex Senior Cup at the first attempt. It was 4-0 by half-time, with two early goals from Jaedon Phillips, then one from Matt McDowell and the fourth from Joel Lamb. Palvy Manduakila and an Argest Nela penalty completed the scoring on a miserable night for The Bridge.
Saturday 23rd November 2024
The Bridge 4 West Essex 1
A bit of revenge for that Senior Cup result as The Bridge get off to a flyer with two goals in eleven minutes. Ruben Santos and Mechack Asuka are on target and Mechack adds his second in the second half before Owen Bellamy tops it off on 81 minutes. In between, Matt McDowell had made it 2-1 before The Bridge took control again to run out convincing winners.

Season 2023/2024
West Essex finished the ESL premier season in 13th place with 42 points from 38 matches, whilst The Bridge finished in 12th place with 49 points from 38 games. The two teams met three times during the season.
Saturday 16th September 2023
The Bridge 2 West Essex 2
Bobby Badham and Jason Banton are on target for The Bridge but the visitors share the spoils with two goals from David Papa Yaw Bell and Ruben Bartlett-Antwi ensuring a share of the spoils.
Saturday 23rd December 2023
West Essex 1 The Bridge 1
The two teams shared the points in the second game as well with Zak Oliver putting the home side one up before Michael Dixon levelled it for The Bridge.
Tuesday 30th January 2024
West Essex 0 The Bridge 1
Peter Butcher Memorial Trophy 2nd Round
The third meeting and finally someone wins the match and, even better, it's The Bridge who win the cup tie with Adam Topley scoring the winner in the 13th minute.

Season 2022/2023
A decent season for West Essex who finish in 10th in the ESL Premier with 59 points from 38 matches. Enfield were Champions with 92 points whilst The Bridge were busy competing in the Isthmian League North and, therefore, the two teams did not meet this season.

Season 2021/2022
West Essex finished in their favourite position of 13th in the ESL Premier with 57 points from 40 matches, Walthamstow were Champions with 92 points. Meanwhile, The Bridge were staging their “Great Escape” in the Isthmian League North and finished 16th with 39 points. With the two teams in different leagues, they didn’t meet this season.

West Essex This season:
League positions in brackets are current position
Home: Won 7, Drawn 2, Lost 6 (F24, A21 = +3) Pts 23 ESL 10th
West Essex’s seven home wins were against:
FC Clacton (19) 3-0
Stansted (20) 2-1
Benfleet (16) 3-2
Halstead Town (15) 2-1
Sawbridgeworth Town (18) 3-0
Little Oakley (9) 1-0
Athletic Newham (10) 3-0
They’ve drawn two:
Takeley (4) 0-0
White Ensign (7) 2-2
Leaving six defeats against:
Great Wakering Rovers (5) 0-2
Stanway Rovers (1) 2-4
Saffron Walden Town (6) 1-2
Romford (8) 1-3
Ilford (14) 1-3
Woodford Town (2) 0-1
Away: Won 3, Drawn 5, Lost 8 (F21, A34 = -13) Pts 14 ESL 15th
West Essex have three wins on the road at:
Buckhurst Hill (12) 3-2
FC Clacton (19) 3-0
Benfleet (16) 2-0
The five draws were at:
White Ensign (7) 0-0
Little Oakley (9) 3-3
Athletic Newham (10) 2-2
Frenford (13) 2-2
Stansted (20) 3-3
Leaving eight defeats at:
Barking (3) 0-1
Takeley (4) 0-1
Hullbridge Sports (17) 1-4 …yes!
Woodford Town (2) 0-3
Saffron Walden Town (6) 1-3
Romford (8) 0-1
Stanway Rovers (1) 1-8
Great Wakering Rovers (5) 0-1

Up for the cup!
In the FA Cup, West Essex exited at the Extra Preliminary Round Stage, losing 1-0 at home to Enfield of the Southern League Division One Central (Level 8, step 4).

In the FA Vase First Qualifying Round, West Essex beat Southend Manor (Eastern Counties League Division One South, Level 10, step 6) 3-1 at home, before winning at Shefford Town & Campton (Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, Level 9, step 5) 2-1 in the Second Qualifying Round. Next up was a 2-0 Round One win at Brimsdown (Eastern Counties League Division One South, Level 10, step 6) before finally going out of the competition in the Second Round, losing 2-0 at fellow ESL Premier White Ensign.

In the BBC Essex Senior Cup First Round, as mentioned above, West Essex beat The Bridge at home 6-0…swiftly moving on! They then won at Harlow Town 2-0 in Round Two and drew 1-1 with Chelmsford City in Round Three before losing 2-4 on penalties.

West Essex won at Barking 2-1 in the Errington Challenge Cup Preliminary Round before losing 2-1 at Halstead Town in Round One. In the Peter Butcher Memorial Trophy, they were knocked out at the First Round stage losing 4-2 on penalties to Little Oakley after a 1-1 draw at 90 minutes.

The Bridge: 2 wins; 1 draw; 3 defeats; For 9; Against 12; GD -3; Points 7
West Essex: 3 wins; 1 draw; 2 defeats; For 10; Against 4; GD +6; Points 10

You wouldn’t necessarily think of West Essex as one of the stronger teams in the division and, just a few weeks ago, it looked like they were slipping into dangerous waters, but their current form is not bad with 10 points out of 18. Compared to The Bridge, that’s 8th best in the division against 14th best. As I said somewhere else in this review, the pressure is off a bit although mathematically FC Clacton and Stansted can still reach 37 and 45 points respectively. That, of course, would require them winning all their remaining matches and, so far, Clacton have only won four and Stansted three, all season.

As you can see above, in their last six, Essex have only lost to GWR and Woodford, so this is not an easy one by any means. My win coefficient that combines league position & current form is 12 in their favour, the higher that number the more likely that team is to win!

Not looking too good on the analysis front but let’s see what happens…

As is the norm, the ESL kicks off on Friday again this week at Woodford. The games that interest us the most are looking fairly OK with SWT, out of form but probably with enough to win at home to Clacton and Stansted v Buckhurst Hill, a difficult one to call but The Stags should at least achieve a draw. Sawbo have it tough at in-form Barking and the rest is down to us. If you’re travelling to West Essex, eh, East London (yes, I know) give the lads a shout from me and always remember…