Woodford Town started rather brightly, with David Gokou looking sharp from the get-go. The winger turned on the after burners to get to the bye-line before cutting it back for Josh Banfield, but the former Buckhurst Hill midfielder saw his shot parried wide by Dan Purdue. However, just three minutes later, Juwon Akintunde made Banfield rue his early miss. Mike Agboola slipped, allowing Barking to get in behind and the cross was on point for Akintunde to tap home from inside the six-yard box, handing the hosts the breakthrough.

The visitors missed another good opportunity with ten minutes to go before the break, with Banfield involved again. His corner found Miles Mitchell-Nelson at the back post, but the defender couldn’t keep his header down, meaning Barking held a narrow lead at the end of the first-half.

Whatever Manager Baptiste said at the interval clearly worked a trick, with his side flying out of the traps at the beginning of the second-half, creating chances and coming close to an equaliser. Ernest Okoh saw a header deflect just wide, before his half-volley effort flashed wide of the post. Nathan Sollosi, starting up front in place of Bruno Tavares, was slipped in by Max Harbrow, but the auxiliary number nine couldn’t divert his effort inside the near post.

However, eventually the pressure paid off, with David Gokou heading home to smash Woodford into the ascendancy with 62 minutes on the clock! Miles Mitchell-Nelson dinked an incredible cross into the danger zone, and there was Gokou arriving to rocket a header past Purdue to draw Woodford level! In the blink of an eye, the comeback was complete. Gokou was on hand again, this time cutting inside before smashing home from 20-yards out! Initially, the goal was disallowed by the assistant referee, but after the referee went over to the far side to discuss with his colleague, the goal was awarded and Woodford Town had the lead.

Despite dominating the opening stages of the final half, things weren’t easy for the boys in yellow and blue, who were reduced to ten-men for ten minutes after Mitchell-Nelson was sent to the sin-bin for reacting angrily to a throw in going against The Woods. Despite this, whilst the right-back was off the field, Barking evened the number of players on the pitch. Captain Sam Edwards was shown a straight red card after he threw Harbrow to the floor in an off-the-ball incident, but even after nine additional minutes, Woodford held out to secure a historic away victory against Barking - their first ever!

Starting XI: E. Agboola; Mitchell-Nelson, Kirwan-Meade, M. Agboola, Harbrow; Owusu (C), Banfield (Steele - 71’), Kebi; Okoh (Angelov - 65’), Sollosi, Gokou (Charles - 88’).

Unused substitutes: Protic, Martins