Friday 27th March, 2026 | Woodford Town 1-6 Buckhurst Hill | Essex Senior League Premier | Attendance : 163
By Harry Biggs
Buckhurst Hill ran away with The Roding Valley Derby for a second time in a row after beating local rivals Woodford Town 6-1, a record scoreline for a Roding Valley Derby on the start of the Non League Day Weekend in what was one of the greatest performances in the clubs Essex Senior League career.
Mark Williams made 3 changes to the side that faced Soul Tower Hamlets last time out. Marko Protic and Nathan Sollosi both made their first starts since rejoining The Stags just a week ago with Dimitri Nicolaou also coming into the side with all three replacing injured Massingham, Banfield and Maltese.
Onto the action now and it didn’t take very long for The Stags to open the scoring, in fact it only took just three minutes for Harry Lusher to put The Stags in front after he was played through on goal to finish the ball past the Woodford keeper, which sent the away end into delirium to start a brilliant evening.
Liam Foster was the next player to go close for The Stags after his effort from the edge of the area was held onto by Chinyere in net for Woodford.
Marko Protic nearly silenced Ashtons on his return with what would’ve been a brilliant second for The Stags if it wasn’t for Chinyere in goal for ‘The Woods’ after the young keeper was able to tip the effort from the edge of the area over the bar. Marko did eventually double our lead and reopen his Stags account just after the half an hour mark when he met a ball played over the Woodford defence and was able to slot the ball into the bottom corner to welcome himself back to the blue side of Roding.
Onto the second half and it took just 60 seconds for Marko to net his second and The Stags’ third of the evening after the ball was played across goal on the edge of the box towards Protic who then thumped the ball into the bottom corner, leaving the Woods keeper with no chance.
It was all guns blazing from then on with defender Harvey Brown nearly scoring his first goal for The Stags less than ten minutes after the restart. A free kick from defender on the edge of the area was fired against the post at speed with Woodford able to clear.
Marko Protic was able to seal his return to Buckhurst Hill by completing his hat-trick just over ten minutes after his second to make it 4-0 to The Stags !
Buckhurst Hill weren’t done there though and were able to make it 5-0 less than two minutes after the last. Protic was involved yet again in another goal against his former side as he danced through the defence before passing the ball across goal to his new team-mate in blue and black, Harry Lusher, who was able to slot the ball into an empty net to grab his second of the evening.
The hosts were able to grab a goal back straight after the restart when midfielder Andre Anderson was able to slot the ball into the net to give Woodford a miniscule lifeline.
That was then surely cancelled out when the man in the middle pointed to the spot, awarding The Stags a penalty when Marko Protic was pushed inside the area. Tyler Dolan then stepped up, leaving the keeper no chance as his great record from the spot continued making it 6-1 to The Stags and a record scoreline in a Roding Valley Derby inside just 63 minutes !
The Stags were then able to hold onto the game with substitutes Archie Hammond and Yannis Mengou both having chances at goal as the game came to a close, with the scoreline staying at 6-1.
TEAM :
North 🧤, Foster, Edwards, Williams ©, Fernandez, Brown, Sollosi, Protic ⚽⚽⚽, Lusher ⚽⚽, Nicolaou, Dolan ⚽
SUBSTITUTES :
Hammond (63’ – Lusher), Mengou (69’ – Dolan), Daniels, Massingham (69’ – Protic), Weston (83’ – Williams)