Advent Calendar 2015: Day 18 – Witham Town 7-3 Waltham Forest

The 2006-7 season was one of Forest’s more successful in recent years. Danny Honeyball’s strong side ended 8th in the table, just five points off the play-offs.

However, the season started in a completely different fashion. Hakan Hayrettin had left to take over at Conference South side Thurrock, and Forest chose to appoint Dave Muir as first team manager.

Muir’s team of young, talented players were out of their depth (similarly to the start of the 2015-16 season), and lost their opening four games of the season before Muir was replaced by Honeyball.

The season started with promise though, Forest pushing division new-boys all the way in a 2-1 defeat on the opening day.

But a few days later, Forest travelled to Witham – just promoted from the Isthmian Division 2 where they were runners up. They eventually finished 20th out of 22 in the table, but in August, they romped to a 7-3 win over Forest.

Darren Duporte, John Hyatt and Laide Adeyemi got on the scoresheet for Forest, but at this point it already looked like it would be a tough season for Forest.

Went on to better things

Mbyeyi Medine went on to play for Cambridge United, while Fola Orilonishe moved to Thurrock and also helped Sutton United to the Isthmian Premier Division title.

Disappeared from view.

Most of that day’s team have been seen knocking about around Essex, but Laide Adeyemi is surely a wasted talent. The front-man has 7 goals in 18 starts for Forest across two seasons – probably the highest strike-rate of any Forest forward.

Note: We’ve skipped a game – the 7-2 win over Tiptree United in the Eastern Flootlit Trophy Final – we’ll revisit this once we’ve scanned the photos!