Redbridge crashed out of the London Senior Cup on Tuesday evening in a classic game of two halves; the Motormen having most of the better chances in the first half but then being under the cosh for long spells in the second period.

It was the Motormen who created their first chance of the game in the 5th minute, and should have scored from it as Asher Modeste picked out Calvin Poku at the back post but the resulting header was nodded over. Bryan Kyungu also flashed a shot wide after good approach play by Tyrone Scarlett.

Cockfosters were able to place a couple of balls in the Redbridge box but were easily cut out by Connor Hyams. It was scrappy at times, but whereas Redbridge tried to play the ball on the floor and use pace to get into good positions, their hosts elected to play long balls over the top and that simply wasn’t troubling Hyams and his defence. At the other end and a defence slip allowed Poku to gain possession just outside the box and teeing up Modeste who had a shot that forced Josh Bradley to dive high to his left to tip the ball away for a corner.

As the half progressed the Motormen were starting to settle and when Bradley Gayer sent over a lofted pass to Poku it looked promising, however Poku then wasn’t able to put power behind his shot and the Cockfosters keeper easily stopped the shot. However Redbridge were soon back on the attack as Ashley Blackburn ran onto a Liam Burgess pass and hit a shot from an acute angle that Bradley tipped away.

The hosts had produced until a ball swept over the Redbridge box which Napier Brown then put back into the box, but Daniel Smith cut that one out; then Brown exchanged passes with Toby Omutoshu before getting off a shot that Hyams parried. And as the half came to an end it was now Cockfosters that had the bit between their teeth and a passing move involving Ceykan Karagozlu and Omutoshu fell to Adam Murad whose resulting shot clipped the post. Hyams had to pull off an excellent save to tip a long range effort from Chris Arkoh over the bar.

The hosts had ended the first half with a flurry and they carried that over into the second half as Murad had a couple of early shots that were blocked by Gayer and Hyams. Then in the 55th minute Hyams was again tipping a good shot over the crossbar; Omotoshu the man denied on this occasion, and soon afterwards Hyams was parrying a Murad shot with the rebound being flashed across the Redbridge goal by Arkoh.

The Motormen were able to have a brace of chances on the hour mark; Tommie Turner having a shot just clearing the cross bar then Modeste tried a shot from outside the box that almost beat the keeper.

Cockfosters finally broke the deadlock in the 70th minute as Omotoshu was fed by a ball just inside the box and he rifled off a shot that went in off the left upright to give the hosts the lead: a lead that they actually deserved as they had been the more dominant of the two teams in the second half.

Having taken the lead the hosts then continued to press but that allowed Redbridge to launch a counter-attack that saw Modeste cannon a long-range shot that Bradley did extremely well to get a hand to and push over the bar. And had the final ball been more accurately delivered then the Motormen would have launched a very threatening move as Ashley Bankole, Michael Ogboin, Tommie Turner and Asher Modeste were all in a good position to test the Cockfosters defence which was at that moment stretched. The ball that was delivered was over-hit and snuffed out the opportunity.

But the Motormen were back on terms when with 84 minutes on the clock Turner let fly from outside the box and the ball sailed past Bradley as it crashed into the top right hand corner of the net.

The hosts went on to re-take the lead three minutes later when a Murad free kick was blocked by Hyams but Jamie Stephens stabbed home the rebound.

However the Motormen had enough time left to see Kyungu hit the post twice, while a last minute corner was headed narrowly over by Smith. However there was to be no further late drama and so Redbridge’s London Senior Cup campaign ended at the first hurdle.

report by Scott Lanza