Motormen and a sleeping beauty

Saturday’s FA Cup Third Round Qualifying tie between Redbridge of the Isthmian League Division One North and Dunstable Town from the Spartan South Midlands League drew 114 fans to Oakside Stadium and we saw a match with a very eventful last 20 minutes.

Nicknamed ‘The Motormen’, Redbridge’s roots lie in the car industry which has long been a staple of the economy in that corner of East London and Essex. The club was previously known as ‘Ford United’ and with that name they twice reached The Cup’s First Round Proper, losing 0-3 at Preston North End in 1998 and holding Port Vale to a 2-2 away draw five years later.

Oakside Stadium is shared by Redbridge and Barkingside and could hardly be closer to Barkingside tube station on the Central line. I’ve often been there when the crowd has been well under a hundred but I attended that Port Vale replay and they had around 1,500 there that night. They even had directions to the ground on a blackboard by the ticket barriers at the station – basically it’s right, right at the bottom, up the hill and first right.

I stood behind a barrier close to the stand and found myself next to Bob Crow and, I think, his dad. Ford went out 1-2 after an own goal in extra time but they came out on top on Saturday and are now just one win away from another appearance in the First Round. Both they and Dunstable had chances up to the 70th minute but a bobbly surface hadn’t helped players setting themselves for a shot.

The Redbridge right-winger finally scored with a close-range effort that hit both posts before rolling over the line but the visitors looked to be quickly back in business as a penalty was awarded for a clear trip on their No.10.

The Redbridge ‘keeper made a blinding stop low to his right and things then went from bad to worse for the Bedfordshire side: they had their left-back sent off, conceded two more goals and had another player carted off to hospital with a shoulder injury.

Not everyone was gripped by Cup fever at my end of the stand. One lady was reading a book, a baby in a pram slept through the entire first half and two young lads were kicking a ball to each other (rather annoyingly) at the front.

The plan for yesterday was to take in an FA Sunday Cup First Round tie. But there were no trains to Carshalton due to ‘essential’ engineering works (Hazelhurst v Ajax LA) and I ran out of time to get to Hatton Cross on the Piccadilly Line (Bedfont Sunday v AFC Rayners Lane).

I ended up as one of 14 spectators at Old Actonians Ladies’ South East Combination fixture with Ebbsfleet United. ‘EU’ won 2-1 after the home team had fluffed two simple chances in the last minute.