The match didn’t take long to ‘get into gear’ with home custodian Billal Khan called into action after just four minutes to deny a drive by Motormen forward Tom Harvey. It was Bengal who took the lead though five minutes later as attacking midfielder Chaka Barnett was fouled in the area. Charles Gregory stepped up and concerted the resulting spot-kick. The hosts couldn’t celebrate for long though on 12 minutes, the visitors vanquished their arrears as Dan Gilchrist pounced with a cool finish to beat Khan to level things up. The early stages saw both teams ‘going for it’ and there was no lack of chances created. Bengal forward Bobby Redwood’s strike was parried by visiting goalkeeper Florent Gislette out of danger before Redbridge centre-back Joe Maskell headed over after a hurried clearance by the hosts led to a corner.

Both teams continued to create chances, almost in tandem as with the half-hour mark coming, the visitors were well-denied following Gilchrist’s pass to strike partner Tony Martin who only had Khan to beat though Bengal’s stopper did well to snuff out the chance. At the other end, Curtley McIntosh was stretching the visiting defence with runs down the channels, and his build-up fed Carvell who fired wide twice in as many minutes. Khan then denied Gilchrist and Maskell whose header was adjudged to have not passed the goal-line.

Bengal started the second half strongly and early-doors, a good move involving McIntosh and Barnett found Carvell who again fired a thunder-bolt narrowly wide of the goal-frame. Barnett then had a half-chance himself, though Gislette pushed away his header at the near post. Imrul Gazi’s side would not be denied though as two quick-fire goals gave them the impetus in this game. First, on 51 minutes, the ball was threaded through to McIntosh who calmly passed home into the far corner with only the stranded Gislette to beat. Then, as the visitors were still recovering two minutes later, Barnett’s fine cross from the right gave Redwood a tap-in. Even then though, with the tenor of the match being as it was, you still felt there was more drama to come.

We weren’t disappointed. Just after the hour mark, the visitors made the most of a yard of space just outside the 18-yard box as Harvey Brown teed up skipper Liam Burgess to lash a cracker into the top corner, giving Khan no chance. Unsurprisingly this lifted Micky Wetherall’s side and after substitute Anthony Bruce had denied Martin another good chance at goal, a goal-mouth scramble followed with Bengal under heavy pressure. As we went into the latter stages of this enthralling tie, Bengal full-back Jerry Jairette did well to ghost in past the Redbridge back line though Gislette denied his header before Redwood fired a promising chance wide after another good run by Barnett.

The topsy-turvy nature of this one continued. Redbridge substitute Rujorn Tuitt had looked a threat since his introduction, and with fifteen minutes left, he was fouled in the area by Bruce. Gilchrist stepped up to take the penalty and fired it low into the corner. Redbridge did finish the match the stronger as midfielder Harvey Brown was denied by the impressive Khan with a fingertip save in added-time though it was hard to deny both sides a share of the points.

report courtesy of @ScottMHC14