I can't honestly say that this is a match report as I was unable to get to GWR on Saturday, so the following is a, let’s call it, “Match Comment.” Apologies for the lack of detail about the match but at least there’s something on the website to acknowledge a great away victory for The Bridge.

A prior commitment prevented me from getting to GWR on Saturday, although ultimately, that was cancelled due to a lack of First Anglia trains. This meant the wife and I accessed plan B and went to the pub instead! Maybe I should stay away from The Bridge games more often if we get results like this one when I’m not there!

So, instead of an afternoon at Burroughs Park, it was an afternoon in The Smugs with the wife and a couple of bottles of wine surrounded by Football on one TV and Rugby on the other. Luckily for us, the TV nearest us had Nottingham Forest v Brighton, just a bit one-sided but plenty of goals from Forest in a 7-0 victory! The rugby TV had a predictable win for Scotland who scored even more than Forest in beating Italy, but we couldn’t see that so well and have very little interest in Scottish rugby anyway, so all was cool. As for The Bridge, we were in the realms of X and FWP to follow the game as much as possible.

It soon became clear that the two club feeds on X were only giving the facts (goals, substitutions kick-off, etc.) so I flipped the phone open at the FWP game page and kept glancing at that. Even then, there wasn’t too much information…a yellow card for Piers Hatcliff after 18 minutes (of course X wasn’t telling us why or if it was deserved) and then nothing until the 35th minute when the screen flashed, and a glance followed by a stare as in bold it said “Darnell Williams scores” to which I exclaimed… we’re winning! Who are, Hullbridge? replied the wife in a tone of disbelief. Yes, I muttered, slightly stunned by events.

37 minutes, Beau Macdonald cautioned (once again, for what, we obviously don’t know). 45 minutes Jack Wilson cautioned. It seems like The Bridge are going into battle here!

Half-time: Great Wakering Rovers 0-1 Hullbridge Sports (small cheer!). There’s a long way to go, quite rightly, said the wife.

Attendance 146 said X.

By now, we’d finished the wine (boo!) and were getting hungry, so it was time to walk home and get some sustenance. What that did mean though was for about half an hour I wouldn’t be able to follow FWP as I didn’t want to take the risk of tripping over walking down the lane looking at my phone after two bottles of wine!
One last look…

Yep, that will be the second-half then.

About half an hour later and we’d missed Shaye La-Rose replacing Alfie Whiteaker on 57’ and Jack Dickinson replacing James White on 58’ but we’d arrived home in time to see Louie Hunt replace Sam Carter on 65’. Well, I say see but obviously mean read. Put the TV on before starting dinner (good advance planning as it just goes in the oven and needs no major culinary skills) so it allows me to get back to FWP. 70 minutes and Callum Boylan is in bold text with the word “scores” following his name. I guess it was too good to last, GWR have been good this season and a win there would be massive and definitely unexpected.

Expecting the worst now, I tucked into dinner (fish pie as you asked) reluctant to look at that green and white screen. See, even the screen is in GWR colours! Bold type, that’s a goal then…only, what, yes, it’s for us…Beau Macdonald 73’. We’re back in front!

Note – There appears to be some confusion about the scorer of the second Bridge goal. Both Beau Macdonald & Louis Hunt have been credited and as I’ve not seen it, I don’t know! If anyone can clarify, feel free to let me know!


Often, you get a bit of video somewhere and can use that to describe the goals but there’s nothing like that today, so I’ll just have to console myself with the fact that we’re 2-1 up with about 15 plus added on to go. This would be amazing if we could hold on.

Agonisingly I don’t know what is happening other than the substitutions that are now coming on at a regular pace. 77’ Max Gnandi and Raheem Gray for Igli Metalia and Dominic Locke. 82’ Jack Hauser and Louis Bragg for Connor Hart and Beau Macdonald. To be honest, all I want to read is substitutes now as that means the score hasn’t changed. In fact, it doesn’t, I get my wish. Two more lines of text read Danny Cossington replaced Kingdom Dawson 84’ and John Elongo replaced Louie Hunt 90+4’. The time is still ticking, 90+5, 90+6. Surely not, we’re nearly there!

90+7, 90+8, what’s going on, how much time is the ref playing…90+9’… it must be over!

Soon enough it is, we’ve done it, we’ve won the big local derby inflicting only the second home defeat of the season on our local rivals. When previewing this game, I said that one point or three would be regarded as bonus points, and bonus points, the three we gained, certainly are. The win takes us to 23 points, creating a large gap to the two teams below the dreaded solid green line. If we can now continue with a few more wins, we will be comfortable and can stop looking downward sooner rather than later.

In the words of a few eyewitnesses who were at the game:

“After some good performances in the last few weeks without any reward, today the Bridge Boys come out on top with a Derby Day win. Some real strong performances from players all across the pitch.”

“Thought Hullbridge deserved the points yesterday, stuck to the game plan, took sting out of the game every opportunity they got, made it difficult for Wakering, punished on the counter, defended well too.”

“Gotta say I was really impressed with @SUFCRootsHall ex-player @PiersHatcliff and loanee @Beau38660449 who played their part in @HullbridgeFC great 2-1 victory over @GWRovers at Burroughs Park this afternoon. Piers even got a cuddle from manager @s21robbo.”

And there you have it, not really a match report but something about the game that hopefully you found entertaining. Normal service will be resumed next week at Romford (Barking) as I’ll be at that one with fingers crossed that we don’t lose, or I will probably be banned from attending future away matches.! Either way, remember…

Eli has been a great addition to The Bridge squad, a bit of experience to supplement the young talent and a solid centre-half who reads the game well. On top of that, he’s putting in MOM-winning performances, and here’s another one to add to the collection. Better start looking for a cabinet mate!