At the start of a season, hopes are high, and you start from scratch, no matter what happened in the season before, and The Bridge travelled to Saffron Walden on Saturday following a decent pre-season and with hopes of a decent away performance and result. After half an hour of season 25/26, that looked possible as The Bridge were 0-0 and holding their own. Unfortunately, the remainder of the game told a very different story and mainly due to The Bridge's self-destruction.

After that initial half-hour, the home side took the lead and increased it throughout the remainder of the game, scoring four goals in the remaining hour or so to make it a disappointing day for The Bridge to get the season underway. No matter how well you play, if you gift goals to the opposition, you're in trouble, and that’s what happened on Saturday. The first of those four goals was a penalty that was dispatched by Salim Nassor after 34 minutes, with Salim’s penalty giving keeper Dom Alexandru no chance as it smashed into the Hullbridge net. There can be no complaints, though, as it looked like a definite penalty for a foul in the box. There was no further scoring in the half, but that changed shortly after the restart.

Just two minutes into the second half, it was a debut goal for Taheeb Elegushi, to add to Salim’s, who was also making his debut, and just after the hour mark, Taheeb was on target again to cap a memorable SWT debut. 3-0 after 61 minutes, and Hullbridge were in damage-limitation mode. However, the damage had already been done. The second goal came from a backpass that Dom Alexandru failed to clear, and Elegushi pounced to net for 2-0. His second and SWT’s third came from a good through ball that Elegushi finished in style.

The Bridge did have the ball in the net twice, but Tobias Braney’s first effort was ruled out for offside and his second was disallowed, presumably for a foul on the goalkeeper, and it was quickly becoming obvious that it was not going to be The Bridge’s day. This was confirmed in the 88th minute when Jeff Cobblah made it 4-0, capitalising on another Bridge error, and The Bridge were left rooted to the bottom of the table, albeit early days, and a table means very little after just one game.

So, a disappointing start to the season, but there’s a long way to go and a whole load of twists and turns along the way, and the journey continues at Lower Road with the first home game of the season against Little Oakley, who were 3-1 home winners on Saturday…let the games commence and as always…