After over a month without a home fixture Regent faced old rivals Aveley on a mild late October afternoon. Overnight rain meant that the pitch was slippery on top but the late summer like weather meant a big crowd of 257 turned out.

Recent changes in personnel meant that there were plenty of new faces on the bench. Francis Jno-Baptiste filled the sole striker spot having recently returned from a spell in the Swedish second division.

Regent kicked off but were immediately put onto the back foot as Aveley showed why they had made such a good start to their season. With former Regent player Connor Witherspoon at the heart of their midfield they showed a good mix of organisation, shape and ability as they penned Regent into their own half.

It took the visitors ten minutes to open the scoring when a ball from the right ran loose in the penalty area and came to the unmarked forward who made the most of a free hit at goal

For the next ten minutes it looked as if it was only a matter of time before Aveley got a second as Charlie Turner was forced to rush out to make a clearance and then had to turn what looked like a certain second past the post for a corner.

Regent produced their best twenty minutes of the game when they started to compete, with Jermaine Anderson flying down the right hand side and Luke Woodward making some impression in attack.

The turning point came after 35 minutes when Zak Littlejohn somehow got away with pulling back an Aveley breakaway much to the indignation of the visiting players and supporters. They put Regent under increasing pressure and after a number of missed chances the referee awarded a corner to much ironic applause from the Aveley travelling support.

With minutes left in the half the visitors scored twice. Once from the corner and then almost immediately added another with a neat combination inside the penalty area.

Regent’s inability to keep hold of the ball meant that rather than going in one down at half time, they had to work out how to turn round a three-goal deficit.

Second half
No changes were made at the start of the second half but after only a few minutes Connor Barnby went down injured and had to be replaced by new boy Andre Odeku.

Shortly afterwards the game was effectively over when Turner was forced to punch away a free kick for a corner and Aveley repeated their previous routine, which the centre half neatly dinked into the top corner.

From then on Aveley were comfortably in charge although Odeku and Dom Locke tried to get Regent back into the game.

There were some fractious moments as time ran out and out of nowhere Regent gave Aveley more free time and space in front of goal for the centre half to toe poke in the fifth and then a sixth came from a well worked move in added time.

Match Verdict
This wasn’t the homecoming that Regent fans had hoped to see. Regent were well outclassed, and were unable to win and retain the ball whereas Aveley kept and used it to good effect. When opportunities came their way, Aveley were clinical whereas Regent were unable to exploit their chances.

By Paul Ketchley