Redbridge went into this Sunday afternoon fixture looking to avoid an unwanted 10th consecutive defeat as they faced top of the table Cray Wanderers.

The away side had a fortunate escape early on when a mix up within their defence allowed Karl Dent in who released James Duckworth but his attempt went wide of Jack Avery’s post.

As the home side continued to press it was Malin Ouani who broke free but the Redbridge keeper was equal to it and made a good save.

The Motormen’s best opportunity then came and had it not been for a last ditch tackle on Reside Coi-Sebastfao the Redbridge player would have been clear through on goal.

Then came a series of free kicks for the home side all taken by Grant Basey , the 3rd of which the Redbridge defence failed to clear and Ben Payne was on hand to head home the opening goal. It was tough on the Motormen up until then who had competed well in the first 39 minutes of the match.

It would now be down to see how they could react after a run of poor results which had resulted in them conceding many goals. Unfortunately just three minutes later and their confidence was damaged further when the home side doubled their advantage as Dent slotted home giving Cray a two goal lead going into the break.

Redbridge started the 2nd half positively and Timi Dorgu almost poked home a deflected effort from Rigers Kabashi. That however was to be the best moment from Redbridge for the remainder of the game as a foul on Dent was punished when the resulting free kick was headed back across goal leaving substitute Ray Powell with the simple task of heading home.

Cray were well on top and thwarted on several occasion due to the assistant referee’s flag going up. However with just five minutes remaining a superb ball split open the Motormen’s defence and Powell calmly beat the onrushing Avery.

That was not the end of the scoring as man of the match Dent ran onto a through ball and lifted his effort over Avery to make it 5-0. Powell was then denied his hat trick as his lobbed effort rebounded back off a post and away to safety.

report by Adam Silver