Advent Calendar 2015: Day 14 – Waltham Abbey 5-4 Waltham Forest

The 2010-11 season was a disappointing one for Forest. Tony Mercer came in to manage the first team and made promises which he simply couldn’t keep.

Months without a win saw his side bottom of the table, and eventually, Wale Ojelabi was brought back in to try and perform a miracle.

Waltham Abbey on the other hand were enjoying a good season, eventually finishing eleventh a season after being relegated from the Ryman Premier.

Forest were forced into several changes ahead of the match, due to injuries and the suspensions of Gbenga Ladega and Gbenga Sonuga. This meant that Marvin Samuel had to sit in at centre back, and Joel Palmer started out on the right wing.

Despite Forest starting brightly and spreading the ball about nicely, it was the home side who took the lead. Abbey were very route-one from the start, and it wasn’t long before a ball over the top made a mess of the Forest defence, allowing Emmanuel Oesi to run through and poke the ball past the on-rushing Eric Pudaloff in the Forest goal.

Wale Ojelabi’s side had shown a lot of fighting spirit in previous matches, and it only took a few minutes for them to draw level. Joel Bevis’ cross was not dealt with by the Abbey defence, and when the ball eventually fell to Billy Healey, he made no mistake in firing the ball into the back of the net.

Bringing the game back so swiftly should have given Forest confidence, but instead, they capitulated into a series of mistakes, allowing Abbey to score three unanswered goals. Lewis Bristow made it 2-1 with a very long range free-kick, which seemed to elude Pudaloff, who could only watch the ball float in at the near post. Oesi then scored his second of the match, with a goal very similar to the first. Pudaloff managed to cause Oesi to go wide with his shot, but such was his pace, he was able to run around and make sure of the goal with a close-range header.

Just before half time, Oesi completed his hat trick with a penalty, given away by Joel Palmer, whose sliced clearance bounced up and hit him on the hand.

Palmer did make amends shortly later however, scoring a good volley just inside the penalty area.

After going in at half time three goals down, Forest started the second half far more brightly, and it didn’t take long before Josh Bonnett forced his way though on goal, and fired a high shot into the back of the net. This goal clearly rattled Abbey, and for the next quarter of an hour, they found it difficult to get out of their own half, passing the ball to Forest players rather than their own.

As has been the case for many years now, Forest were unable to score when they were on top, Ian Luck and Chris Oyebanjo-Richardson both had several good chances to score, but Abbey eventually regained control of the match and forced a couple of good chances.

In the dying embers of the match, Billy Healey and Jack Daveney were involved in an off the ball tangle, resulting in Daveney lashing out and kicking Healey in the jaw. Daveney’s attack was spotted by the assistant referee, and he was shown a red card. The referee then went on to point to the penalty spot, and Josh Bonnett stepped up confidently to score his second of the game.

Sadly for Forest, they could not score another goal, and now look destined to finish in bottom place, as they are still six points behind Ilford with only three games left to play.

However, a final day 4-0 victory over Maldon & Tiptree was enough for Forest to secure a reprieve from relegation based on points-per-game.

Went on to bigger things

Gaz Dauti has played for a number of Ryman Premier League clubs, while Billy Healey top-scored at Hanwell Town in the 2014-15 Southern League, and is now top scorer for Wingate & Finchley in the Ryman Premier League. Marvin Samuel had an excellent spell as Hertford Town manager, before returning to Forest where he retired from first team football.

Disappeared from view

Denisas Zadeikis moved on to Hanwell Town after playing for Forest, but hasn’t been seen recently.