The Foxes played out a rather unspectacular 0-0 draw under the lights against fellow bottom half side Sawbridgeworth Town.
With Sawbridgeworth having the second worse goal difference in the league Ilford would have been hoping to add to their goal tally.
It turned out to be the opposite for the Foxes, who struggled to create anything over the course of 90 minutes. You wouldn’t have thought ‘Sawbo’ had leaked goals going by this performance.
Lacking Quality
The opening 20 minutes saw a real scrappy affair. With Ilford edging it in terms of possession and looking the more threatening of the two sides. ‘Sawbo’ looked very happy to sit and defend the edge of their own area. With both centre backs time and again making great challenges.
The only moment of quality in the game came in the 26th minute. With Dimi Christou floating a cross from the left into wide man Agyemang who set it to the edge for top scorer Yemi Adelani, who saw his thunderous drive crash against the crossbar.
The rest of the half played out much as the opening 20 minutes did. With Ilford trying to get the opener but falling short in the final third. The busiest man on the pitch was the referee, with big challenges and little fouls creeping in regularly towards the end of the half. Most notably, Yemi Adelani found himself booked and sin binned before the end of the half. The forward was booked for a late barge on the goalkeeper and subsequently sin binned for his protests to the ref.
Defending 101
After the first half spectators were at least sure of one thing. The second half couldn’t be worse than the first. We were wrong.
Defensively ‘Sawbo’ didn’t look like a team that have conceded 11 goals in their last three games. Whilst Ilford huffed and puffed going forward, they never once looked like threatening the ‘Sawbo’ goal. That moment of quality never came for the Foxes, with their closest chance coming as Agyemang looked to have been played through one on one, only for a ‘Sawbo’ defender to race back and put in a superb last-ditch challenge.
One of the few notable moments for the visitors from the second half came when young keeper Blackburn miskicked a ball out and fired it straight to the ‘Sawbo’ striker, the forward never managed to get his feet sorted and allowed the Ilford defence to get back and snuff out any danger.
Player of the match
Unsurprisingly, man of the match goes to one of Sawbridgeworth’s centre halves. Captain Frankie Oatham was dominant in his position all game. Constantly vocal with his side and lead by example to those around him.
Up next for Ilford it’s a cup match against Clacton at home. The Foxes will no doubt be raring to go as they look to get into the Second Round of the FA Vase which is something the Foxes haven’t done since the 99-00 season.
