The defeat is a further blow in their bid to avoid the drop although with Ilford also losing at home to Brentwood Town it’s as you were with a two point difference and two matches in hand over our fellow relegation rivals.

Redbridge had gone into the match confident after picking up a good point at the weekend against Brentwood Town, Witham also would have been in buoyant mood after a win over Maldon and Tiptree and were looking for revenge after their home defeat to Redbridge back in February. Main goal threat for the Motormen Jacob Cleaver was missing from the line up whilst Luke Read and Jason Dobbs came in for their debuts.

After a quiet start the home side almost opened the scoring when Daniel Laurent saw his shot from25 yards just tipped over by Danny Sambridge in goal. Redbridge kept up the pressure with a succession of corners which saw one result in a Stephen Ikumelo header cleared off the line. Witham slowly got back into the game and Rob Whitnell looked certain to score after he latched onto a long through ball which evaded Michael Bowditch in goal, he however was slow to reach allowing Lamar Lemonius to get back and clear the danger.

Into the 2nd half and new signing Dobbs saw broke free on the right flank, he looked up and with Sambridge off his line he attempted the shot from fully 40 yards (beckham esque) . Only the post came to the rescue and prevented what would have been a quite superb goal.

The match changed on 63 minutes when in a melee of players it appeared that Ikumelo lashed out at a Witham player and the referee had no choice to award the red card. Witham’s Paul King also was handed red for his part although from the home bench and his reaction it seemed like it was a possible case of mistaken identity.

After that Redbridge were unable to find the same level they had in the first half and it was the away side who were creating the better chances which capitalized in them taking the lead after 79mins when substitute Sam Taylor found space outside the area and slotted home past Bowditch.

The home side tried to apply some late pressure which came to nothing and Witham celebrated on hearing the final whistle whilst Redbridge now must rally together once again for their away trip to Cheshunt at the weekend.