ON THIS DAY DECEMBER 28th

ON THIS DAY DECEMBER 28th 2002
Ilford, having opened their brand new clubhouse were leading the Foresters Essex Senior League table along with Enfield Town who had two games in hand, Southend Manor and Romford were close behind. Hullbridge Sports with only two wins in 14 games were holding up the table. After a dreadful run of bad weather including floods and snow over Christmas it was good to see at least five games played out of the scheduled eight. The result of the day was Barkingside’s 7 0 win over a “new” Woodford Town though, in fact, Woodford Town had gone through a very traumatic time and had a total change of management and with it, players. Concord Rangers beat Burnham Ramblers 4-1, Enfield Town drew 1-1 with Waltham Abbey, Ilford won 2-1 at Romford and Saffron Walden beat Stansted 2-1.
The leading goalscorer was Kristian Down of Burnham Ramblers with 15 followed by Kenny Leslie of Romford and C J Emmanuel of Ilford with 12 apiece, the latter close to 100 goals in three and a half seasons.
Going back to Monday 23rd December an interesting match, when you look back in time, was Ilford’s London Senior Cup tie with Bromley where Chris Stevens scored in 23 seconds but the opposition, now in the Football League won 2-1.
Charlton Athletic beat West Bromwich Albion in the Premiership 1-0 and Everton drew 0-0 with Bolton Wanderers. In the lowest Division Three, Bournemouth drew 3-3 with Rochdale and Exeter drew 1-1 with Macclesfield yet in the Football Conference, Doncaster Rovers beat Leigh Genesis 1-0, prime examples of how times change!