A last minute winner ensured Wadham Lodge’s revival continued at pace on Saturday as they secured a 3-2 Essex Senior League Premier Division win over Stansted.

Marc Farrell’s side took the lead through Mario Gnijaj early on, only for Stansted to hit through Wisley Baltazar back inside 20 minutes.

The visitors completed a mini turnaround through Emmanuel Oluwole, but were pegged back by a battling Lodge as Dwayde James set up a close conclusion to the match.

It would be the home side who came away with all three points when James struck in the dying stages.

The result sees Lodge move to 17th in the table and they are now only two points behind Stansted who occupy 12th.

At the time of going to press Lodge were preparing to take on FC Romania on Wednesday night before facing another away day against Woodford Town on Saturday.

Waltham Forest also had reason to be cheerful as they ended a run of eight straight defeats by overcoming an out-of-form Barkingside outfit by a score of 2-1.

A tense game between two of the league’s strugglers was eventually decided in the final 10 minutes.

Nikko Stokes grabbed the go-ahead goal with his first goal for the club and Mo Sagaf converted a 88th minute penalty to give Forest breathing space.

Barkingside’s Michael Ogboin pulled one back from the spot in the final minute but the strike counted for little more than a consolation.

Forest have moved out of the bottom four and now sit 18th by virtue of the defeat.

Liam Thomas was the undoubted star for Redbridge as his hat-trick guided the league leaders to a 3-1 victory over West Essex.

The win was by no means straightforward and Essex took the lead through Joe Lefley in the fifth minute.

The game turned on its head in the space of three second half minutes as Thomas first levelled the scores in the 57th minute.

He took the goal in instinctive fashion, reacting quickly to turn in Eljay Worrell’s free-kick.

Thomas’ second showed equally impressive opportunistic qualities as he ghosted in to fire in a rebound after the West Essex stopper had made a smart save.

He completed his treble of strikes with the game in it’s final throws as he calmly finished a penalty after Jacob Dingli had been fouled by the Essex stopper.

Redbridge extended their lead at the summit of the table to five points on Monday night as they hammered Tower Hamlets 5-0 on home soil.

The win owed much to the individual excellence of Worrell as he bagged a hat-trick to lead the comprehensive rout.

He scored twice in the first half before scoring a last minute penalty to add to goals from Martin Tuohy and Dingli. Ilford failed to do Redbridge any favours as they took on fellow tittle candidates Basildon United and went down to a 1-0 loss on Saturday.

The only goal of the game came in the first half as Luke Hornsley provided the knockout blow for Basildon against a well-drilled and committed Ilford.

Iford are ninth after the loss and will hope for better when they take on Woodford Town at home on Saturday afternoon.