Redbridge went into this game having tasted defeat against Aveley on Saturday and Joe Gent and Daniel Jones opened brightly looking to play passes off to the Redbridge forwards.

It nearly came off when on 6 minutes a Gent through ball was picked up by Michael Ogboin inside the Hornchurch box that required a last-ditch tackle from Junior Luke to remove the danger.

However AFC Hornchurch promptly launched their own attack which culminated in David Knight crossing from the left by-line to George Purcell who placed his shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net.

The time was 7 minutes and Purcell doubled the lead 3 minutes later when a defence-splitting through ball played him in and he hit a superb left foot shot past the despairing dive of Avery.

Redbridge never shifted from playing pass and move football and a 3 pass move played in Rigers Kabashi but he was tackled before he could unleash a shot.

AFC Hornchurch looked very dangerous when they went on the attack and Vinny Murphy had to carry out a clean up job at the other end after Tom Pennells went on a run that took him past 3 players. Avery also had to tip a Purcell shot onto the post just after the half hour.

Redbridge had their best chance on 34 minutes when Jones worked his way into the Hornchurch box but he couldn’t get a shot off after being boxed in by the Hornchurch defence. But just when Redbridge were looking to try and get a foothold on the game Purcell went and scored his hat-trick. Avery had initially pulled off two saves from two headers but the last rebound fell nicely to Purcell who had the easy task of slotting the ball into the net.

David Knight, who had been involved in most of Hornchurch’s attacking movements, got himself on the score sheet when he drilled past Avery on 50 minutes. However he should have done better with a penalty kick on 55 minutes which was blasted high and wide of the target.

Redbridge to their credit did not give up totally and were able to get the ball at times near the Hornchurch goal but found the Hornchurch defence resolute.

Hornchurch added further goals when Elliot Styles headed past Avery on 70 minutes and Purcell then closed the show with his fourth goal 3 minutes later.

Report by Scott Lanza