New season, New something else...

After a disrupted pre-season and with four players leaving and new ones entering and some old faces returning, this was an unsurprisingly disjointed performance from the Redbridge Men's 1s.

After a slightly delayed start, due to an umpire being stuck in traffic, the match got under-way in pleasant sunshine.

R&Is started well, with a Happy short corner miraculously and mysteriously cleared off the line by the post man.

Redbridge took the lead when three returning players linked up. First Nick took a high ball down well, he then squared to Tom who flicked the ball through to Jake who slotted the ball in the far post.

Unfortunately the rest of the first half wasn't quite as successful with the boys from Clacton getting lucky a couple of times and going in 2-1 up.

In the second half, Nick Radley equalised with aplomb. He definitely knew exactly where the ball was and he definitely planned to play it off the opponents stick and loop it the goal.

Clacton the got lucky again to make it 3-2 before Jake Forman got his second of the game after good work in the D by Andy Pearce. With new boy Suk pulling the strings in midfield it looked like there would only be one winner. Unfortunately, Redbridge collectively decided to give up and wait for the result to happen. It didn't and a Clacton scored a 1 on 1 after Redbridge pushed up too far and then another after Mark's stick miraculously and mysteriously appeared 20 yards away leaving him unable to make a tackle.

Overall this was a winnable match that Redbridge lost, but there are still many positives to take forward to Phoenix away next week!!