This was another one of those games that, for me, goes down in the unable to attend column but thanks to a decent X feed from the home club and a glance at their match report I can bring you some match information, albeit from a Woodford angle.

Quite a lot of matches go, predictably, to form, and this was definitely one of those as The Bridge racked up their fourth defeat in a row and The Woods secured a home tie in the play-offs with this straightforward 4-0 victory.

The first thing of note, according to the Woods X feed, was after 11 minutes when home keeper Manny Agboola came out of his goal to chest the ball down and clear, so The Bridge going forward, but it didn’t sound too threatening. Five or so minutes later, ex-Bridge and now Woodford Captain, Sam Owusu’s shot was narrowly wide of the post, in fact inches wide as per The Woods X description.

Woodford, unsurprisingly, were applying the pressure and on 25 minutes, Pedro Carvalho beat his man and teed up Josh Banfield, but Josh’s effort was blocked by The Bridge defence. With pressure mounting on the Hullbridge goal, it wasn’t a surprise that the opener came soon after, 2 minutes in fact, as Luke Steele slid Micah Jackson in down the left and Micah cut in and fired into the bottom corner. I’ve seen this one on video, and this was a decent finish that just evaded Dom Alexandru and Oscar Jones on the line to put the hosts one up.

Following on FWP, I didn’t think this would be the end of the scoring, and so it proved as the game progressed. Just four minutes after the opener, a Micah Jackson free-kick was saved by Alexandru, and from the resulting corner Kahlil Kirwan-Meade flicked the ball onto Miles Mitchell-Nelson, who headed home to double the home team's advantage.

That was the end of the scoring for the first half, but as half-time approached, Max Harbrow linked with Jackson but his effort was saved by Alexandru and the half finished 2-0 to the home side.

2-0 down against a dominant Woodford side, I don’t think even the most optimistic Bridge fan could see The Bridge getting back into this one, and that feeling would prove to be correct as the minutes increased and so did the score. It didn’t take many second-half minutes before it was 3-0 when Pedro Carvalho scored his first Woodford goal. A long throw was flicked on by Miles Mitchell-Nelson, and Carvalho was first there and headed Woodford’s third.

Luke Steel and Beau Macdonald received yellow cards for an altercation, and for a while, neither goal was threatened. Somehow, though, we knew that it probably wasn’t the end of the scoring, and with twenty left to play, The Woods increased their lead to four. Josh Banfield found Micah Jackson, who deftly flicked the ball to David Gokou-Siakouri, who made it four.

To be fair to The Bridge, they survived the last twenty-plus minutes, without further damage, although substitute Ernest Okoh went close on two occasions, bending one over the bar and then crashing one against the bar with the help of a magnificent tip onto the bar by Dom Alexandru.

The weekend was pretty much a wrap-up in the ESL Premier, and it's congratulations to Champions Stanway Rovers and play-off qualifiers Takeley, Woodford Town, GWR, and Barking. Meanwhile, The Bridge can still finish 17th with a win at Benfleet, and if the Sawbo result at White Ensign goes the right way. Commiserations to Stansted and FC Clacton, who are relegated.

So, defeat at Woodford makes it 23 for the season for The Bridge as a disappointing season is nearly at an end. Two squad rebuilds in two seasons have proved a tough prospect, and let’s hope some of the squad of 24/25 remain and give us something to build on in 25/26. Either way, we remain…