Friday night at the Oakside saw Redbridge welcome Woodford Town with a healthy crowd watching on. With the match falling over remembrance weekend a minute silence took place prior to kick off as we remember the fallen.

The first chance fell to the away side when hesitant defending allowed Lauric Diakiesse in and he was able to get a shot in which skimmed the outside of a post.

Frankie Naidoo then suddenly found himself in plenty of space and decided to try his luck from range but the ball was always rising.

A dangerous cross was then put over deflecting against defender Eamon Payne who was relieved to see the ball drop the wrong side of Jake Larkins post.

With Woodford bossing the opening proceedings the home side had their first real attack of note when Tom Harvey found Taylor Tombides in space and he beat his man before putting over a teasing cross which was well defended.

A missed opportunity for Woodford to open the scoring when Tola Odedoyin unmarked could only head over from a corner.

Tony Martin then came forward and although he was able to round keeper Alex Reed he could only proceed in finding the side netting.

Woodford did finally take the lead their play had deserved as Andrea Mantovani curled a low effort into the back of the net.

The vocal Woodford Town followers then thought their side had scored a second but the official on the far side had his flag raised for offside and the decision was chalked off.

The second period began with a free kick being whipped in which was spilt by Larkins before the follow up cross found Joshua Steel in an advanced position but his shot was way off target when he really should have scored.

Martin then played in Tombides who was unable to beat Reed who stood firm to make the save. At the opposite end Larkins was called upon to make a superb double point blank range save denying Woodford from doubling their advantage.

Woodford were then reduced to ten men when an off the ball incident saw Diakiesse shown a second yellow card and was subsequently sent to the dressing room.

With the numerical advantage Redbridge immediately came forward and had a great opportunity to equalise when Harvey Brown put over a delightful cross finding Martin in space but the striker failed to find the target from close range.

Martin then however turned provider as he broke free down the right before crossing for Tombides who was able to take a touch before cutting inside a defender and firing home to level the score.

Redbridge made all their changes as one of them in James Barlow took advatage of a missed clearance and ran through on goal before agonisingly shooting wide. Fellow substitutes Dan Gilchrist and Rujorn Tuitt were then guilty of big misses as they both blasted over from close range.

Those missed chances proved costly as with two minutes remaining Woodford retained their lead when good work down the right from Anis Mehmeti resulted in him finding substitute Lance Ledgister who buried the chance to give his side the victory.

report by Adam Silver