Walthamstow v Waltham Abbey preview

Walthamstow welcome local rivals Waltham Abbey to Wadham Lodge on Bank Holiday Monday in the Isthmian League.

Stow were away at Newmarket Town on Saturday, where the points were shared in a bonkers game with the scoreline ending 4-4. The first half ended 3-1 to the hosts, with all four goals being scored in the space of 10 minutes. Jahkyah Ebanks Blake gave the Jockeys the lead in the 8th minute followed by Joshua Lee making it 2-0 in the 15th minute. Charlie Heatley pulled one back to make it 2-1 two minutes later, but Newmarket regained their two-goal lead thanks to Jake Eady. In the 63rd minute, both sides were reduced to ten men following two horrific challenges on Jordan Peart which led to a mini brawl. Prince Mutswunguma was sent off for Newmarket and Rasheed Salau was shown his marching orders. Stow then completed the comeback thanks to a penalty from Brian Garzon and Charlie Heatley picking up his hattrick with less than 10 minutes to go. Newmarket drew level in the 88th minute thanks to Jahkyah Ebanks Blake’s second goal of the afternoon making it 4-4. Stow were then reduced to 9 men when Gassem Benelghazi was wrongly shown a second yellow card. The hosts had one final chance right at the end to snatch the victory which was cleared off the line.

Waltham Abbey also scored four goals on Saturday in a 4-0 home win against Concord Rangers. Luke Deslandes gave Abbey the advantage going into half time, with Benjamin Baker making it two right after the break. Aaron Eyoma extended their lead to three in the 59th minute before Khale Da Costa made it 4-0 to the hosts.

Stow and Abbey have faced each other twice this season at Cappershotts with the first meeting being one to forget for Stow. Abbey demolished Stow 6-0 in the FA Trophy Third Qualifying Round back in early October thanks to goals from Aaron Eyoma, Tayo Oyebola, Matthew Price, Amrit Bansal-McNulty, Abdirahman Mohamud and Kai Brown. In the Isthmian League, Stow narrowly missed out on a draw falling to a 1-0 defeat in late December through another goal from Tayo Oyebola.

Pictured: the 2007 meeting between the two sides at Wadham Lodge.

Previous meetings

Walthamstow and Abbey’s common people

Considering the short distance between the two clubs, there have been a few names to have played for both clubs.

Some of those names include Tayo Oyebola, Te Wihongi, Bradley Robinson, Kieron Cathline, Jason Hallett, Duncan Culley, Ryan Maxwell, Mark Twunmasi, Shomari Barnwell, Lee White, Jordon Bostock, Ashlee Jones, Lamar Johnson, Kymani Thomas, Demaray Anyadike, Yemi Adelani, Tommy Spillane, Elliott Sartorius, Suley Zuhdu, Richard Hayward, Harvey Livings-Corbin and Fabian Simms.