Redbridge fell to a heavy defeat to promotion chasing East Thurrock United. The result means the Motormen have lost all three of their league games this season.

The game started so well for the away team who dominated much of the first half going in front with Tom Stephen’s strike. But despite their possession the half ended level with Neil Richmond scoring a brilliant header. The home team came out for the second half with much more urgency and pulled away with some fine attacking display and finishing.

The game started fairly evenly but the away side were pushing forward most and got an early goal just eight minutes in. A mistake in the East Thurrock box let in Stephen on the far left hand side to hit a shot in off the bar.

The away side continued to dominate and almost made it two. From a cleared corner former Everton striker Kevin McLeod set himself for a shot from range but curled his shot just wide.

The home side were getting back into it but the next meaningful chance again fell to Redbridge and again to McLeod. A quick break saw the Motormen move forward. McLeod picked the ball up outside the area and just tweaked his shot past the far post when it looked like it was going to settle into the bottom corner.

On the half hour mark the away team felt they should have had a penalty. From the break Redbridge got to the right hand side of the box before moving the ball inwards to Alex Reed. He fell from a challenge before Mark Nougher curled his shot wide.

But minutes later the ball would end up in the other net. A lovely cross from Ryan Sammons was met by the head of Neil Richmond to put his side level from a difficult angle.

Just before the half Redbridge had one more chance to regain the lead and it once again fell to McLeod but his volley flew over the bar.

From the kick off East Thurrock had the first chance of the half. A ball over the top was met by Kris Newby who took the ball down and sliced his just past far post.

Moments later it would have been 2-1 to the home team but for the heroics of captain Simon Peddie. A goalmouth scramble resulted in the ball heading for the net before Peddie dived in and cleared it away off the line.

The lead did come for the home team just four minutes in to the half. Richmond, moments after striking the post, lifted a pass over his head for Cornhill to smash in with a volley.

With little over half hour left Redbridge were able to have a shot at goal after some pressure from East Thurrock. McLeod again picking the ball up from range and edging it just past the post.

But it would be East Thurrock who got the next goal. After turning the screw in search of finishing the game off. A cross was whipped in and missed by the Redbridge defence for Webb to pick up and smash home on the far left of the area.

The remainder of the half passed by without much incident. Substitute Wayne Grant latched on to back pass but was unable to do anything shot he should have scored.

They would pay for their wastefulness with an awful decision from the linesman. A through ball to Richmond was clear to be offside to all bar the man in black as the forward raced towards the Redbridge goal before squaring it across for Kye Ruel to tap into an empty net.

The score was so close to being closer as McLeod hit the bar from a free kick just outside the area with only a minute left.

It was a disappointing display in the second half for Redbridge but the display of new signing Kevin McLeod and the first have performance would have been very encouraging for manager Dave Ross as he looks to bounce back from this bad start. They can do that on Tuesday night at home to Cheshunt.

Report courtesy of http://1075.timefm.com/