Transit Van

Redbridge  1  Brightlingsea Regent  1

Isthmian League – Division One North 

Admission / Programme - £10 / Free

It does feel like getting to a game at the Oakside Stadium, the home of Redbridge Football Club, was proving to be more problematic than it needed to be.

The problem was not the doing of the football club by any means, the pitch is notoriously reliable, or at least seems to have been this season when others have fallen foul of the weather. No, the problem was very much one of my own doing. 

Bad planning for a start, like planning to go to a game that was never going to be played because Redbridge were in the FA Trophy. The fact two teams play at the ground, Newbury Forest being the other in the Eastern Counties League, meant I kept putting it off because effectively it was a ground I could go to on any given Saturday. Then of course, when it was on the radar recently, what was effectively the toss of a coin, took us to Raynes Park Vale instead.

Like I say, it wasn’t a Hanworth Villla situation by any means whereby a cat wazzing on the pitch would get a game called off, it was just one of those situations where it kept getting pushed back, and then further back, bearing in mind it was originally scheduled for a Saturday in November!

So, I had a plan, the home game against Brightlingsea Regent, the weather looked fine, and barring something pretty extreme happening, all looked good. A further twist on Saturday morning came in the shape of Alfreton Town’s home game with Kings Lynn Town being called off (ATFC Club Shop Mark predicted it to be fair on Tuesday – he knows you know!), and that meant I had a travelling companion for the fourth Saturday since the start of December when we went to Horsham.

A 10.30am departure from downtown ‘Ofton’ saw the sat nav spin us on to the A14 and then down the M11 which was not something I was expecting. The M11 had a couple or three hold ups, but as we passed the home of Woodford Town, and then slipped passed Redbridge Underground Station we were soon parking up at the very nice Crown & Crooked Billet pub in Woodford Green, a GBG pub that Mark had sniffed out earlier.

It was just before quarter to two, and following a quick necking of a pint, it was only 2.7 miles to the ground, and to be fair, by the time we’d admired the gated properties of this part of Essex along the main road that runs into Barkingside, it wasn’t long before we were crossing the bridge at Barkingside Underground Station and turning right into the car park.

So what’s the deal with Redbridge Football Club then?

Firstly, when you think about non-league football and the North / East of London the first thing that springs to mind is mergers, closures, takeovers, grounds going, grounds being shared, and ultimately a whole host of confusion. To be clear, Redbridge FC are absolutely nothing to do with Dagenham & Redbridge, and, despite the fact they play at the stadium in Barkingside, that Barkingside FC used to use, they are nothing to do with them either!

So forget your Walthamstow’s, your Leytonstone’s your Ilford’s, your Leyton’s, or your Waltham’s, this is completely separate.

Redbridge FC are the club formerly known as Ford United. Ford United came about in 1959 following a merger between Ford Sports and Briggs Sports. Yes, there is a very strong link with the motor company that was indeed entrenched in East London, and that very same motor company provided backing for Ford United who plied there trade at the Rush Green Sports Ground, which was eventually annexed by West Ham United who turned it into their training ground.

After playing in various local leagues, Ford joined the Essex Senior League in 1974, where they remained until 1997 when they joined the Isthmian League. A rapid rise ensued and by 2002 they found themselves in the Premier Division, before ultimately making the cut to join the newly formed Conference South.

This move coincided with the ending of the backing from the Ford Motor Company, and having recently moved to the Oakside Stadium after Barkingside’s lease was not renewed, they changed their name to the current guise in an attempt to better reflect the local community.

As Ford United they did make a bit of a name for themselves in the FA Cup, reaching the First Round in 1998-99 only to lose to Preston North End. Then in 2003-04, in the final season before the name change they held Port Vale to a 2-2 draw at Vale Park before losing the replay 2-1 in front of the TV cameras.

Redbridge’s first season in the Conference South ended badly, and with that came about a steady decline, so much so that by 2016 they were back in the Essex Senior League. That said though, they did beat Haywards Heath Town at the end of last season in the Inter-League Play Off and by doing so they now find themselves back in the Isthmian League.

Having said all that about the decline, in 2011-12 they reached the Second Round of the FA Cup, beating Oxford City in the First Round before going down 5-0 at Crawley Town.

What’s the Oakside Stadium like then?

Well, bit of a story for you, back in the mid to late Nineties I worked, ironically, in the automotive industry as a buyer, and at the time I had some dealings with a company called Directa UK. I used to speak on the phone to the sales rep fairly regularly, and in time we got onto talking about football. He did try and get me into an executive box at Tottenham Hotspur on a couple of occasions, but due to my commitments at Belper Town we could never make it happen. Anyway, it turned out he used to go down to the Oakside Stadium to watch Barkingside from time to time, having many a late Saturday night holed up in the bar!

Situated right next to the Underground Station, the ground is charmingly ramshackle. You enter behind the goal and directly in front of you is the smart clubhouse where Fosters was being sold at a price welcomingly cheap considering which part of the Country we were in. Behind the said North goal are a couple of steps of terracing but raised above those steps is a concreted walkway which provides excellent elevated views of the action.

The East side is out of bounds and it looks like the perimeter fencing has been the victim of some storms, while behind the South goal is a narrow concrete walkway. Furniture wise it’s all about the West side. An area of cover straddles the half way line, and contained within it are a number of seats of varying types, colours and styles, while towards the South end of the cover the seats stop and it’s just terracing. Either side of the cover, again, are areas of terracing with elevated concreted areas at the top providing the best vistas.

A couple of portakabin style buildings sit between the stand and the clubhouse / dressing rooms, but what they are used for, I couldn’t tell you. The pitch was a bit heavy, but perfectly playable.

A crowd of just 85 rocked up to watch it, with a fair number having travelled from Brightlingsea (the mini bus was parked outside!). It’s a shame the crowds are so low because the club were very friendly, but I guess in this part of the World, there are lots of other things you can do on a Saturday afternoon. 

The game was ok, not the best, not the worst. Regent started quite brightly but Redbridge had a golden chance to take the lead in the first half but Ayo Odukoya saw his weak penalty easily saved by Lewis Greene.

The second half was a better spectacle and it was the hosts who came out the stronger, taking the lead through Lewis Clark who got the vital touch from a free kick on the left hand side. Redbridge took the game to Regent in the second period as the visitors struggled to create anything, but a late sting in the tail saw Kurt Smith break free in the sixth minute of added time to grab the equaliser.

And that was it, game over, and before long we were gawping once again at some of the properties around Chigwell and the Epping Forest, before finally getting onto the M25 and homeward bound.

An enjoyable day at a very welcoming club, if only a few more of the locals would make the effort to go and watch them. The club could quite easily have died when Ford withdrew their backing, so credit to the ‘Motormen’ for trying to forge a new identity. 

However, notwithstanding the lack of support, the spirit of the Transit Van lives on!