Shane Baptiste’s side made the trip to Burroughs Park to take on 4th-placed Great Wakering Rovers, only four days after their toughly contested draw against league leaders Stanway Rovers. The impact of two big clashes in a such a short period of time saw Woodford Town battered and bruised before they had even kicked off the tie in Southend, with goalkeeper Manny Agboola, Miles Mitchell-Nelson and Nathan Sollosi all missing out and being replaced by Eddie Allan, Emmanuel Martins and Micah Jackson.

In the first half, Allan was on hand to make a number of good saves, whilst defender Mike Agboola limped through until the break after picking up a knock early on. However, a hamstring injury to Normand Kebi saw The Woods forced into their first change, with the midfielder being taken off after 27 minutes for Max Harbrow. At the break, Baptiste made further changes with Agboola’s race being run, he was taken off with Simon Omope making his second debut for the club, whilst Ernest Okoh was swapped for Jayden Charles.

Whilst the hosts continued to press forward for a winner, it was a substitute who came so close to pulling off a miraculous Woodford win. Jayden Charles turned and struck an effort towards goal from 35-yards out, but it crashed off the crossbar before falling to David Gokou, who somehow failed to turn home from inside the six-yard box, meaning there was nothing to separate the two sides at the full-time whistle.

Starting XI: Allan (GK); Steele, Kirwan-Meade, M. Agboola (Omope - 46’), Martins; Kebi (Harbrow - 27’), Owusu (C), Banfield; Gokou, Jackson, Okoh (Charles - 46’).

Unused substitute: Angelov