East London [M4s] 3-4 Upminster [M3s]

Upminster made the trip up the A13 to face East London Mens 4th team on a bitterly cold Saturday morning. With the game in some doubt after a week of wintry weather the pitch was passed fit to play. Both teams knew that a win would certainly ease the threat of relegation and get them moving in the right direction.

It was Upminster who started the brighter of the 2 teams pressing high and forcing the East London defence into numerous mistakes. Upminster took a deserved lead when their 4th PC of the game was fiercely struck from MOTM Ford past the goalkeeper onto the backboard. The goals continued to flow when Woods added a quick double before Wright got in on the action just before the break to give the U’s a 4-0 lead at half time which could have been 6 or even 7 was such the dominance of the away side.

Upminster knew that the response from the home side would be strong but it was Upminster who looked the more likely to add to their tally with a constant threat on the break. But then a switch from East London, who pushed players higher up the pitch started to stretch the game. The switch worked when East London got a goal back to give the home team some hope. With 20 mins left Upminster were still comfortable and DOTM Appleton used all of his experience to try take the sting out of the game after a couple of poor challenges saw the home side receive cards. But East London did force a 2nd goal and then with just over 5 mins to go the home side scored their 3rd of the game from a well worked PC.

Upminster who had been in total control of the game for 60 mins were in real danger of dropping all 3 points that they thoroughly deserved. Thankfully after some keep ball high up in the home sides half, the time ticked down and Upminster won the game 4-3.

Upminster face table topping Wapping at home next weekend and if they play like they did in the first half then there will be no doubt that they end up mid table at the end of the season.

MOTM – Ford
DOTM – Appleton