If you looked at the league table before the start of this game you may have thought this would be a home win for The Bridge, with the home side in 7th place and the visitors in 18th. However, maybe that didn’t tell the full story as a glance at current form would show that Rovers were in decent form of late with wins over Romford, Buckhurst Hill, Harlow in the FA Vase, and Coggeshall Town. The Bridge form has been going in the other direction with three defeats in a row, so maybe it wasn't as easy to call the result as it seemed.

Having said that, even the most pessimistic Bridge fan would not have expected the result that this match produced, and this was probably the low point of the season as Stanway ran away with the game by a five-goal margin. The game did not start well for Hullbridge who went one goal down after just five minutes when a free header by Jack Johnson from a corner put the visitors one up.

The Bridge were not really at the races and Stanway looked confident and organised as they went about taking control of the game. They had the ball in the net again soon, but it was disallowed for a foul on goalkeeper Bradley Davison, but they wouldn’t be stopped for long, and when The Bridge failed to clear on 22 minutes, a cross from Nat Mardell was headed home for goal number two by Reece Conway.

We hoped for a way back into the game and when Mike Agboola was pulled in the box, suddenly we had one as the ref pointed to the spot. When things are not going your way, sometimes everything goes wrong, and this was the case as Jason Banton’s kick was well saved by Rover’s keeper Alfie Marigliani. Just before half-time, The Bridge came close with a Jon Evans effort cleared off the line, but Stanway held the two-goal advantage as the first half ended.

If we thought the first half was not good for Hullbridge, the second half was even worse. Stanway remained on top, and The Bridge rarely troubled the visitor's goal as the game went from bad to worse for The Bridge and Stanway added to their tally. Goal number three came from another header, this time from the impressive Mardell and then Michael Osei received a red card, and The Bridge were down to ten.

The way things were going, we hoped that The Bridge could at least keep the score at 3-0 but this was turning into a day to forget, and substitute Josh Hughes made it four with a decent half-volley as the game approached the 90-minute mark. To be fair, this was a good performance from the visitors as shown by the score and Hullbridge were unable to trouble them much over the course of the entire 90 minutes

Stanway, however, were not finished yet and there was still time for a fifth goal from a corner that was headed home by Jack Madley. A miserable day was complete, a five-nil defeat, a missed penalty, a poor Bridge performance, four headed goals conceded, and a red card.

The poor run continues and it’s hard to understand what has suddenly gone wrong given this is the same group of players that were having such a good run a little while ago. Still, that’s football and it’s never been easy to understand why these things happen. We move on to the next one and hope for a change in fortunes that does happen and is equally as hard to explain. A bad day for The Bridge but, as they say, tomorrow’s another day, so there remains just one thing left to say…

A difficult day for The Bridge with most players struggling to make an impact. Jon, once again, did all he could to turn the tide and kept pushing The Bridge forward in pursuit of that elusive goal that, in the end, never came. Jon went close on a few occasions himself and one attempt was cleared off the line, so maybe not a vintage performance but a never-say-die attitude that is enough to give Jon the award on a very disappointing day for The Bridge.