A fine Dean Driscoll penalty save secured a point against Heybridge Swifts although Redbridge did enough throughout to take all the points.

Redbridge welcomed back ex- coach Jody Brown who had recently taken up the position as Swifts 1st team manager and were hoping to put in a better performance than on the last two occasions the two sides met resulting in an 8-0 and 11-0 defeats.

It was however the away side who opened the scoring after 12 minutes when Debemi Dumaka picked up the ball in the right side of the area and drilled his low shot past Dean Driscoll in goal. The home side were using the flanks well getting in some good crosses and thought they should have had a penalty when Ben Bradbury was hauled to the ground but the referee waived away the shouts.

Top scorer Daniel Charge left the field after he collided with the advertising hoarding and his replacement Kurt Smith grabbed the equaliser shortly afterwards. Good build up play between Daniel Francis and Bradbury saw the ball fall to Smith who made space for himself and firing low past Ashley Harrison in goal.

It was no more than the home side deserved and they really should have taken the lead when from an Eljay Worrell free kick Liam Thomas rode unmarked and saw his headed effort go wide.

Into the 2nd half and Heybridge almost regained the lead though Dave Wareham but his headed was cleared off the line.

Kurt Smith then saw his run brought to an end with a desperate tackle and from the resulting free kick Stephen Good got the final touch as Redbridge thought they had gone in front but their celebrations were cut short as he was in an offside position.

As the match entered its final stages both sides went looking for the winner and it seemed it would be Heybridge Swifts who would get it when substitute Chris Bryan’s run ended with a tackle from Tyron Thomas.

The referee pointed to the corner spot but with the Heybridge players and bench screaming for a penalty the linesman overruled the decision and with that the referee changed his mind and awarded the spot kick.

Fellow substitute Robert King stepped up only to be denied by a brilliant diving save from Driscoll who then reacted quickest to pull off an even better stop to the follow up before the ball was finally cleared to safety.

Report by Adam Silver