Redbridge hosted Eastern Counties Premier division side Long Melford in the opening round of the Emirates FA Cup in which was the first ever meeting between the two sides. With a home tie in the next round on offer along with over £2000 in prize money to the winners this was a match both sides certainly were looking to win.

Long Melford almost took advantage of poor defending by Redbridge and pushed forward winning a corner.
From the resulting kick they took an early lead , David Lopez swung in the ball which was met by Nathan Rowe whose effort crashed against the bar but fell kindly to Hasan Allly whom was quickest to react and fire home from close range.

Lopez had a good chance to double his and Long Melford’s lead with a free kick which went just wide of the upright

The Motormen then had their first attack which came from Asher Modeste down the left , he looked up and fired the ball into the area but with nobody waiting in the middle the ball was cleared to safety.

The best moment of the match followed when Redbridge goalkeeper Lewis Greene threw the ball out to Joey May just inside his own half , he immediately looked up and saw Glen Morrison off his line and tried his luck looking to lob the keeper who only just managed to get back in time to deny what would have been a wonderful strike.

Redbridge continued to push forward in search of an equaliser , DJ Adelekan saw his free kick strike a wall and Liam Burgess fired the rebound goal wards but his effort was saved down low.

The match started to become a little sloppy and the away side in particular were guilty of committing several fouls leading to free kicks in dangerous areas but none of which troubled Morrison in goal.

Most of the home side’s good play was coming through Modeste and he whipped in a dangerous cross which saw a defender take a swing at , almost diverting the ball into his own goal.

A sucker punch then followed for Redbridge as Long Melford came up field and a well worked move eventually resulted in a cross to the far post where captain Steve Adams was on hand unmarked at the afar post to simply head home

The final chance of the half fell to Redbridge when Modeste found Calvin Poku all alone at the far post but his header was well saved by Morrison although really the striker should have scored.

The second period began with an early chance from May as he shot over the bar from just outside the box however things soon went from bad to worse for the home side as Josh Coulson played a poor ball out of defence which was capitalized on by ally

He ran into the box only to be hauled down by the same player and left the referee with no option but to point straight to the penalty spot
David Lopez stepped up to send Greene the wrong way and stroke home the 3rd goal.

Just a minute later though and Redbridge got themselves back in the game when Adelekan touched home in a crowded penalty box to give the home side some hope.

Poku then tried a cheeky lob which failed to fool the keeper who saved easily before substitute Tommy Turner put in a delightful ball looking to fellow sub Michael Ogboin who failed to connect properly and the chance went begging

Daniel Smith then found himself near to goal running onto a flick from Ogboin but his effort was off target as the home side continued to put in lots of effort but in the end were missing that bit of quality as the final whistle was blown putting an early end to Redbridge’s FA Cup journey for another season.

report by Adam Silver