Defeated at Bury

Redbridge made the midweek trip to Suffolk on a wet and windy evening to face Bury Town.

The home side were in good form unbeaten in their previous 8 league matches stretching back to mid November whilst the Motormen were still searching for their first away league win on the road.

The first chance of the match fell to Bury Town as Cemal Ramadan latched onto a headed clearance shooting just wide of Connor Wheatley's upright.

The early threat and possession was all with the home side and they were almost in on goal when Ryan Horne played a defence splitting pass into the path of Ramadan who managed to stay onside but fired wide after Wheatley had done well to come out quickly and narrow the angle.

A dangerous free kick was then drilled across the Redbridge penalty box but there was no Bury player on the end of it as the pressure continued.

It was therefore no real surprise when Bury eventually did go in front after 23 minutes, an initial shot from the lively Ramadan was well saved but fell kindly back to Ollie Canfer and he had time to pick his spot firing past Wheatley at his near post who was most likely expecting the shot across goal.

The home side were looking sharper and certainly more decisive with the ball and missed a good opportunity to double their advantage when goal scorer Canfer headed over from close range.

Redbridge offered little in the first half and it was not until the clock struck the 45th minute that they had their first shot on target as a long range strike from Joe Elliott required Charlie Beckwith to be alert and turn behind for what was also a first corner of the game for the away side.

Into the second period the rain and wind intensified making playing conditions harder but with the wind in their favour Redbridge started to improve on their first half performance however it was Ramadan who almost found the net only to be denied again by Wheatley who saved with his feet.

Redbridge made their three substitutions in fairly quick succession as they looked to try and get back into the game and with the score only at 1-0 they certainly had every chance.

From a corner Ayo Odukoya collected the ball before trying to set himself up for a shot but was unable to find the target firing wide, the same player was involved again heading wide from a Bradley Bennett cross as the chances started to fall for the away side.

Against the wind Bury Town were short of creating chances in the second period but were defending well as Redbridge started to put pressure on them in search of the equaliser.

From a corner the ball was eventually fired into a crowded goalmouth and deflected towards the far post where Henry Day was positioned but the defender was unable to keep his effort down and fired well over from close range.

As the board went up signalling four additional minutes Redbridge thought they had levelled when Jack Chawner let fly from distance but keeper Beckwith pulled off a stunning diving save to deny him.

Redbridge keeper Wheatley came forward for the resulting corner which was subsequently cleared by and with the empty goal ahead it seemed certain they would score however Chawner made up distance before sliding in with the challenge to bring down the Bury player which left the referee with no choice but to produce a red card and give the penalty at the same time.

Up stepped Ramadan who fired emphatically past Wheatley from the spot to score before straight from the resulting kick off the full time whistle was sounded.

report by Adam Silver