Three goals, three points and a clean sheet- Redbridge must have thought they were in dreamland at the Oakside as they boosted their chances of survival with an impressive victory over Brentwood Town which gave them their first home win since October.

After a day of rain both sides were glad just to get the game under way as this was a fixture originally scheduled to be played on New Year’s Day and came just two days after both sides were last in action.
As in that match Redbridge once again got off to a perfect start and took the lead after just 5 minutes, it was man of the moment Jacob Cleaver who scored the goal which was his sixth in his last 5 matches. Sam Holloway floated a ball over the top of the Brentwood defence which Cleaver ran onto and steered his superb effort past Reece Ottley in goal who had no chance. The Redbridge striker has now scored 15 of his sides 34 goals this season and without him would no doubt already have been relegated.

He was causing the Brentwood defence all sorts of problems and they were having difficulty in containing him, he almost scored again this time racing onto Daniel Laurent’s through ball but fizzed his effort just wide. The away side had their first chance when Neil Cousins headed just wide after a good ball into the box from Gregg Cohen.

After 31 minutes the home side increased their lead when Captain Leamar Lemonius jumped highest and was first to react to a corner, it was his 2nd goal of the season. Redbridge were looking like a team going for promotion rather than being in a relegation fight and some excellent work out wide saw Jason Dobbs beat two men before he was pulled down just outside the area although the resulting free kick came to nothing.

Redbridge then were in unfamiliar territory as they went 3 up and it was Cleaver once again grabbing the goal. He was put through by Danny Hayes and found himself one on one with the onrushing Ottley but kept his composure and calmly lifted the ball over him into an empty net.
The 2nd half in comparison was low key but Redbridge continued to dominate and always looked likely to score again. The closest they came was when a Charlie Rolls shot was spilled by the goalkeeper straight into the path of Cleaver and when he looked certain to grab his hat trick he stabbed the ball agonisingly wide.

Cleaver had further attempts to put the game out of Brentwood’s reach and in truth nobody could have argued had the score been 4 or 5 nil. They saw the final moments out and in doing so recorded their first clean sheet of the season in the league, the evening was made even better when news filtered through that Ilford had been heavily beaten at Waltham Abbey. That takes us off the bottom of the table 2 points ahead of Ilford still with a match in hand and now with a +6 goal difference in our favour.

It will be important that Redbridge can keep the momentum going and take the confidence this will will undoubtedly have into their final 5 matches.

Redbridge: Michael Bowditch, James Yeboah, Charlie Rolls, Daniel Laurent, Lamar Lemonius(D’Sean Theobald), Luke Read, Danny Hayes, Sam Holloway, Jacob Cleaver, Jason Dobbs(Charlie Portway), Marvin Farrell(Emmanuel Kadima)