ESSEX SENIOR LEAGUE - FOUR GOALS FOR WOODFORD AGAINST BARKINGSIDE

Match played on Tuesday 5th February 2019 

Barkingside appointed Alex Goldstone as their manager in mid-November following Michael Walther's departure and subsequent move to Bostik League North Division  Basildon United. Walther was only with The Bees for four games as joint-manager before leaving the Essex club. 

It's taken some time but Goldstone has improved results for Barkingside - He is also the Director of Football at Bostik League side Romford. 

When he joined 'Side had just five points from seventeen league games played - going into this game they had sixteen from twenty-six games played. The improvement looks better from the points per game angle - 0.29 PPG over the first seventeen league games compared to 1.22 PPG for their last nine games going into kick off on Tuesday evening at Harlow Town FC.  

In the opening moments of the game it was the visitors who looked the brighter but they never really made Alex Reed in the Woodford goal work hard to make saves. Woodford scored first on 5 minutes when a ball over the top saw Vlad Sighiartau (a player Goldstone will know well as he has represented Romford previously) beat the offside trap and easily put the ball past the advancing Barkingside keeper Ryan Karrer. 

Both sides continued to play some good football with former West Essex player Isaac Marfo having some attempts at goal for the visitors with the half time score being 1-0.  

In the second half Woodford seemed to up things a little and it was an impressive forward run by left back Morgan Seaman whose cross was met by Taku Mashingaidze on the edge of the box whose skillful volley nestled into the corner of the net to make it 2-0. Seaman made a number of good confident attacking forward runs throughout the game. 

It was 2-1 when central defender Derek Ohalem headed home a corner from close range but then almost in their next attack Woodford sealed the game when substitute Temi Babalola slid to put the ball into the net from close range following a cross from the right hand side. Babalola ran open armed, towards the noisy Woodford fans who had been supporting their team throughout, to celebrate with them. 

Ethan Kessel put some gloss on the result with a close range finish on 87 minutes to make the final score 4-1 which was a little harsh on the visitors I think as they played some decent football at times which will be something to build on over the coming months. 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - MINI 

FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - 13 MINUTES 

MORGAN SEAMAN - PLAYER HIGHLIGHTS 
 

Woodford Town
Alex Reed, Bailey Brown, Morgan Seaman, Malaki Toussaint (Connor Leon), Joshua Steele, Alex Grosvenor, Taku Mashingaidze, Ethan Kessel, Alan Fleming (Samir Ali 75), Vlad Sighiartau, Andrea Mantovani (Temi Babalola 66).

Barkingside
Ryan Karrer, Frederico Hernandez (Abdul Musah), George Woodward, Joe Oates (Edward Buchannen), Charlie Hay, Derek Ohalem, David Ottley, Dan Jones, Mario Gjini, Henry Matthews, Isaac Marfo.

Woodford Town are currently ground-sharing at Harlow Town but are scheduled to move into their new home at Ashton Playing Fields hopefully sometime later this year so the future is looking bright. It can only be a positive for football in East London for Woodford Town to be playing in their home borough for the first time since 1993 when a former incarnation of the club left their famous Snakes Lane ground.