Saturday 13th December, 2025 | Buckhurst Hill 5-0 Hackney Wick | Essex Senior League Premier | Attendance : 85
By Harry Biggs
Buckhurst Hill FC made it back to back victories over Hackney Wick and kept their winning run going after a 5-0 victory over the travelling side on another brilliant afternoon at Roding Lane as we approach the new year.
Four changes were made to the side that faced the same side we faced today in Hackney Wick, but with last time out being cup action, multiple changes were made to the side. New young keeper Dino Maras would start between the sticks and would replace another young star in Lenny Perry, who was the hero in the shootout against The Wickers in cup action. Ollie Fernandez returned to the side after missing the cup clash and would come in at full back to replace the unavailable George Edwards. Two places that started the cup match dropped to the bench, who were Archie Hammond and Max Nicholson, with captain Ollie Williams and Jack Johnson coming into the side. Hammond and Nicholson were named on the bench as mentioned alongside Yannis Mengou, Dimitri Nicolaou and Preston Knight, who returned to the squad for the first time since October after missing a spell out.
Onto the action now and there wasn’t much action in the first few minutes apart from Hackney Wick’s prolific goalscorer, Issa Sidibe going down injured and eventually would go onto being substituted at the break after taking a blow to the head from a collision with Maras, with both trying to win the ball in the air.
A few minutes later, The Stags had their first real chance to test the visitors keeper after Callum Maltese hit a shot from the edge of the box through the Wickers defence but although the shot was bound for the bottom corner, the visitors keeper Nasim was able to save the effort and hang onto the ball.
A minute later, another chance came for Buckhurst Hill with Arthur Massingham striking the post from the edge of the box !
The Stags finally broke the deadlock a minute after the last chance with Jack Johnson firing a bullet header into the back of the net on the twentieth minute mark. A corner from Josh Banfield found the head of Jack Johnson at the front post and with Johnson losing his marker, he was able to head the ball into the top corner and send the home end into jubilation !
Buckhurst Hill now had the momentum and sent another shot goalwards just four minutes after the restart with Callum Maltese inches away from doubling The Stags’ lead but his shot was inches wide of the Hackney post.
Just after the half an hour mark, Arthur Massingham had his shot cleared off the line by a Hackney Wick defender before the referee was to wave away penalty shouts for Buckhurst Hill, which wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last time in the game.
Massingham finally got his goal to double the lead for The Stags with five minutes of the half to play after he fired the ball into the top corner. The young winger picked up the ball on the edge of the area and was able to drive into the penalty and release a shot at goal which was cleared off the line again by a Hackney Wick defender before he could then regain possession and shoot again from a very tight angle, somehow squeezing the effort into the top corner and past the Hackney Wick defender in front of him.
The Stags weren’t done there though and just three minutes later, Josh Banfield was able to get himself on the scoresheet and net just his second ever goal in Buckhurst Hill colours. Callum Maltese was able to lay the ball off to Josh Banfield inside the penalty area, who then placed the ball into the bottom corner across the box using the outside of his boot to make the score 3-0 to The Stags !
Just before the break, Dino Maras was forced into making his first save of the game and his first in the colours of black and blue with The Stags going into the break with 3 goals to the good.
Onto the second half and with only just 6 minutes played, the referee had another huge decision to make in the game after a Hackney Wick defender was seen to clearly handle the ball inside the area as he was sliding to block the ball but despite all of the claims from supporters, players and most of all the Buckhurst Hill bench, the man in the middle decided to wave away the penalty claims and keep the game going !
Three minutes later, Liam Foster nearly grabbed himself a goal on his 99th appearance for the club after his cross nearly ended up in the top corner after he received the ball moments after a shot from Maltese was pushed away by the visitors keeper.
Just before the hour mark, Ollie Fernandez earned himself a booking which would go down as the only card for The Stags in the game.
The bench was called upon a few minutes after when captain Ollie Williams was replaced by Dimi Nicolaou for a straight switch in the midfield, before another substitution was made five minutes later when Archie Hammond came on to replace goalscorer Arthur Massingham.
Another goal was added to the tally when Harry Lusher made it 4-0 to The Stags with just under twenty minutes to play. The young striker was played through on goal and was left with a one on one with the Hackney Wick keeper in which he capitalised on, dinking the ball to the over of the keeper, and into the back of the net to send The Stags fans positioned behind the goals into wild celebrations before he celebrated with them and our mini mascots, who shouted his name.
With the stoppage of the goal, the home bench used the opportunity to make another change which saw the introduction of Yannis Mengou, who came on to replace Callum Maltese.
With the introduction of fresh legs, The Stags just didn’t stop running and with the introduction of the fourth change with Max Nicholson coming on for Liam Foster with eight minutes to play, another goal was looking increasingly likely.
That goal came just a minute after the latest and final change after Tyler Dolan was able to fire the ball into the top corner. Two substitutes were also involved in the goal with Archie Hammond playing a beautiful pass over the top of the defence to release Yannis Mengou on the wing, who was able to cut back and play the ball across the box to find the run of Tyler Dolan, who then with a first time finish, smashed the ball into the top corner to surely finish the deal in the contest.
With another stoppage, that meant another substitution and it was the final one possible for The Stags to make in the game and it saw the reintroduction of Preston Knight, who came onto replace Harvey Brown, with Knight stepping on the pitch for the first time in the past few months, which was great to see.
The final chance of the game actually fell to Hackney Wick but the clean sheet was maintained for The Stags after Dino Maras made a brilliant save to deny the visitors after diving on top of the ball at the strikers feet.
That was it then for another 90 minutes of action and The Stags winning run continued with a magnificent win over Hackney Wick on a festive afternoon.
TEAM:
Maras 🧤, Foster, Fernandez 🟨, Williams ©, Johnson ⚽️, Brown, Massingham ⚽️, Banfield ⚽️, Lusher ⚽️, Maltese, Dolan ⚽️
SUBS:
Knight (84’ – Brown), Nicolaou (64’ – Williams), Hammond (69’ – Massingham), Mengou (73’ – Maltese),
Nicholson (81’ – Foster)
NEXT MATCH:
Saturday 20th December – Sporting Bengal United (H) – KO 2PM – Essex Senior League Premier