Essex Senior League

Tuesday 4th March 2025

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.46

Benfleet 0 Barking 5, attendance 112

2’ 0-1

24’ 0-2

28’ 0-3

45’ + 1, 0-4

53’ 0-5

@ Woodside Park

Manor Road

New Thundersley

SS7 4PA

£6 Admission

Programme available, didn’t bother buying.

I came to a game here at Woodside Park back in July 2021, when I saw Benfleet play a friendly on the second pitch. At that time, the first team were ground sharing at Canvey Island, but they’ve since brought the main pitch up to Step 5 standard. It is now fully enclosed and obviously floodlit. Spectator access is limited to three sides, with the dugouts on the far side being the out of bounds area. The entrance side, which houses the clubhouse and changing rooms, has a seated kit stand, flanked by two covered standing areas.

The pitch here suffers horrendously from poor/no drainage, despite having a side to side slope that normally helps with such problems. This was their first home game they’ve managed to play here since December 28th and only the third going back to the third week of October. I’ve already had two failed attempts to get here already this season, both times where the games were postponed following pitch inspections that were being conducted too late to still have a chance of making it for kick off, even if they had been passed as ‘on’, due to having to battle M25 roadworks around Clacket Lane Services, let alone the usual Dartford Crossing shenanigans. Anyway, on such a dry sunny day, this looked a good bet to finally go ahead. The club had replied on Twitter that this was indeed the case, although I was told by a fellow ‘hopper at the game that the Referee only actually gave it the green light just before 7 o’clock!

The match was 16th versus 4th in the league table. Barking were very impressive and went ahead after just two minutes, shooting low through a crowd of players, following the award of an indirect free kick just outside the six yard box. Benfleet had a chance to level the scores after 20 minutes, but the penalty kick was well saved by the ‘keeper, then four minutes later Barking scored their second, heading in a left wing cross at the near post. Four minutes later it was 0-3, when a ball in from the right was swept in from 10 yards.

Any chance that Benfleet might have had of getting back into it disappeared minutes later, when a foul inside the centre circle resulted in a straight red card for one of their defenders. The Barking player on the receiving end lay motionless, clearly badly injured. An ambulance was called and the players and officials left the pitch. Meanwhile, a stretcher appeared and the player was loaded and removed, before the ambulance had arrived. After a quick warm up, following a break of just over half an hour, the match resumed and the final eleven minutes of the half were played to a conclusion, with Barking making it 0-4 in added time, heading in at the far post, from a corner on the left. A truncated halftime saw the second half back underway at 21.08 and eight minutes later Barking added their fifth goal of the night, tapping in a cross from the right at the near post. They then took their foot off the pedal, content that the points were safe and the nearest they came to grabbing a sixth goal was a shot that hit the post late on.

I was very pleased to finally get this ground ticked off and the completion of Steps 1 to 6 edges a little closer. Just Truro City (Step 2), Jersey Bulls (Step 5) and Darlington Town (Step 6) to go now. I’m unlikely to manage it this season now though, as I prefer to do floodlit grounds for midweek matches, so expect that number to increase by the start of next season.