Match Preview

Woodford Town Football Club is a football club based in Woodford in the London Borough of Redbridge. They are currently members of the Essex Senior League and play at Ashton Playing Fields.

History
THE EARLY YEARS
Woodford Town Football Club was established in 1937 and were founder members of the Delphian League. In 1950 we lost 7-1 to Colchester Utd in the 4th Qualifying round of the FA Cup in front of a ground record of 7000 at Snakes Lane. The superbly named Johnny Bee stung our illustrious opponents into action with a sensational 9th-minute strike before all hopes of a famous giant killing were cruelly swatted in the second half.

Amongst noticeable players to grace the white Woods shirt was a certain Johnny Haynes soon to leave an indelible mark on the game at Fulham and England and later given legendary status as Football’s first £100 a week player at a time when wages regularly failed to reach the minimum wage of the time.

THE 1970's
At the end of the 1970–71 season, we joined Division One South of the Southern League but left after a single season in which we finished bottom of the table. We joined the Essex Senior League in 1976, before switching to the Athenian League in 1979.

THE 1980's
We rejoined the Southern Division of the Southern League in 1982 where illustrious Tottenham Hotspur International duo Jimmy Greaves & Joe Kinnear were among a number of eye catching signings, albeit in the twilight of their careers.

Amazingly we played in the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1986 losing 4–0 to Piacenza in the semi-final and then 3–2 to Merthyr Tydfil in the 3rd Place play-off, the former game featured on Italian TV.

After finishing third in 1986–87 and reaching the first round of the FA Cup for the first time, we dropped back into the Essex Senior League at the end of the season.
Despite the disappointment, Woodford had put themselves firmly on the football map succumbing only to a very late Colin Foster goal against Leyton Orient in the aforementioned match in front of another bumper gate at Snakes Lane, a game after which star striker Paul Williams was transferred to Charlton Athletic for an undisclosed sum after an eye-catching display on a bumpy surface very much of the day.

THE 1990's
In 1993 we lost our Snakes Lane ground and transferred to Division One of the Spartan League, which merged into the Spartan South Midlands League in 1997, with Woodford placed in the Premier Division South.

However, we left the league in 1998 and dropped into the London Intermediate League, before returning to the Essex Senior League in 1999. We remained in the league until being voted out in 2003 after finishing bottom of the league for three seasons in a row.

THE 2000's
In 2017 we returned to the Essex Senior League reverting back to our original name – Woodford Town Football Club.

Despite nomadic spells at Broxbourne Borough and Harlow Town ‘The Woods’ began to attract interest for their attacking, youth-based playing style which saw Teenagers Ryley Scott and Jaden Brissett picked up by Ipswich Town and Brentford respectively and their unique fan base establishing itself amongst the loyalist and noisiest in Non-League Football.

The link with football history didn’t stop there either as Woodford Town won a thrilling FA Cup tie v London Colney in front of 375 fans at the Harlow Arena on 31st August 2020. The singular Friday night fixture goes into the record books as the only time The FA Cup has ended and started in the same month, a slice of football trivia unlikely to be repeated.

06/12/23 League Woodford Town 1 (Nathan Sollosi)
Barking 1

24/11/23 League Woodford Town 3 (Luke Steele, Jack Hilaire, Georges Kebi)
Saffron Walden 0

21/11/23 League Stanway Rovers 5
Woodford Town 2 (Nathan Sollosi 2)

17/11/23 League Woodford Town 1 (Nathan Sollosi)
Takeley 1

11/11/23 FA Vase London Lions 1
Woodford Town 1 (Yemi Adelani)
London Lions won 5-4 on pens.

08/11/23 League Romford 2
Woodford Town 1 (Jedidah Brown-Johnson)
________________________________________
The Woods are currently in 3rd place in the Essex Senior League Premier. They have 39 points from 20 games and were the early-season pacesetters of the division. 11 wins, 6 draws, and 3 defeats, they have a +23 goal difference (48 - 25). Their record on the road is impressive, won 6, drew 3, and lost just 2, scoring 28 and conceding 16.
In comparison, The Bridge are 8th, 9 points behind having also played 20 matches.
In current form, they sit 12th out of 20, with 2 wins, 2 draws, and 2 defeats, scoring 13 and conceding 9. The Bridge are 18th out of 20 with 1 win and 5 defeats, scoring 3 and conceding 14.

Yemi Adelani
Andre Anderson
Billy Barr
Eli Benoit
Samir Bihmoutine
Alexandru Bolovan
Bailey Brown
Jedidah Brown-Johnson
Ben Byrne
Dimitri Christou
Patrick Clarke
Tom Cottle-Wood
Chaynie Fage Burgin
Samraj Gill
David Gokou-Siakouri
Edward Gordon Allan
Jack Hilaire
James Jewers
Myles John
Courtney Justin
Euphrapy Kalonga
Georges Kebi
Guy Kiangebeni
Kahlil Kirwan-Meade
Samuel May-Parrott
Callum McEvoy
Opeoluwa Mosuro
Ernest Okoh
Simon Omope
Oscar Onuorah
Luke Parrott
Kai Peters
James Runham
Jovan Shand-Alridge
Lee Sharpe
Nathan Sollosi
Sam Sollosi
George Thompson
Luke Steele
Lewis Wicker

Always look out for the top goal scorers, so in this case, it’s Luke Parrott with 18 (23 appearances) and Nathan Sollosi with 11. Nathan’s 11 have come from 16 appearances so he could be the danger man and he has been scoring most of the goals recently so, I reiterate, he could be the danger man.

This season, on the 8th of September, The Bridge led a high-flying Woodford with a goal by Jon Evans and nearly took all three points before a 92nd-minute equaliser from Jaedon Phillips salvaged a point for the home side.

The Bridge side has changed a lot since then, as has Woodford’s probably, although both Luke Parrott and Nathan Sollosi were in the line-up and failed to score, so fingers crossed for a repeat…except the 92nd-minute equaliser bit!

Two teams in free-fall recent results-wise, so something has got to give…or it could just be a draw. The Bridge changes should have settled down a bit by now and The Woods will be looking to regain some form to maintain their title challenge, so an interesting encounter is in store. The last home game before Christmas, three points would be a nice early present, so let’s hope Santa knows the way to the T. J. Cottis and he’s got that blue uniform on…Ho, Ho Ho!

There remains just one thing left to say….