Brightlingsea Regent welcomed Bishop's Stortford to the Taydal Stadium in what was the two sides first ever league meeting.

The first half was a fairly even one with both sides failing to find a cutting edge.

The visitors player manager Jamie Cureton fired a volley at James Bradbrook after 18 minutes from a Johnville Renee cross on the right

Regent did have the ball in the back of the net in the 24th minute, a lovely Jake Turner pass got Aaron Condon in behind the Stortford defence and applied a neat finish but the Assistant Referee raised his flag.

The second half started much move livelier with both teams showing more content.

Just three minutes into the half Regent struck the Bar! A Ricky Griggs corner was only half cleared with the second ball being delivered back into the box where Josh Gould was able to sweep his shot towards goal only for it to strike the top of the crossbar and out of play.

The hosts were reduced to ten men in the 76th minute, when Ryan Henshaw was shown a straight red for a late challenge on Aaron Condon.

The R's went close with a minute of normal time to play, when Billy Hunt centred, this was met by the defending head of Mark Haines, the defender got his direction all wrong and ended up forcing a fine save from the blues goalkeeper Calum Kitscha.

With the last kick of the game Regent won the match. A long diagonal pass by Matt Cripps picked out Aaron Condon superbly, Condon's first touch took the ball away from the defender and he struck home to give Regent the points, his 7th goal in 8 games since his return!

Regent have had a marvellous December, winning 5 out of 6 matches and have climbed away from the dreaded drop zone.

2018 ends with Regent on a high, we now move in to 2019 and our first hurdle will be a trip to Tonbridge Angels on the 5th January.

Happy New Year from everyone at Brightlingsea Regent FC!