Highams club will clinch league crown with success at Crow Lane on Saturday

Tom Redfern believes Woodford will face a huge battle this weekend as they visit Romford & Gidea Park for a London Two North East title showdown.

The Highams club currently sit 17 points clear at the top of the standings, with Romford leading the chasing pack in second place.

With a maximum of just 20 points up for grabs over the remaining four games, a win for Woodford on Saturday would be enough to see them secure the title.

The Highams club would of course love to wrap the title up early, but Redfern is keen to make his team aware of the challenge at hand this weekend.

“Romford are the only team who’ve beaten us this season and we don’t want to be that team who wins the title, but hasn’t beaten everyone in the division,” he said.

“We’re keen to perform well again and if we play like I know we can, then the result should come.

“Romford might not be in good form, but they’re second for a reason and we know that we’ll have to play well.

“If we do get the win on Saturday, then it will be a brilliant feeling as it will mean we’re champions, but we know we’re going to have to fight hard for that win.”

If Woodford do claim the title this weekend, it would be the culmination of a phenomenal turnaround in fortunes over the past 18 months.

This time last term, the Highams club were still battle to avoid relegation to London Three Essex, but now stand on the verge promotion to London One North.

Redfern believes Woodford’s ability to adapt to different challenges has keen key to the change in fortunes, but knows they must demonstrate that again to complete the job.

“Being top of the table, we’ve been in plenty of situations in recent weeks where the opposition want to frustrate you and you have to adapt accordingly,” he added.

“We know that if we need to adapt to certain situations at Romford, we can dot that.

“They might have some tricks up their sleeve this weekend, but might have some as well.”

Woodford won 52-7 at home to South Woodham Ferrers last weekend to move to the verge of the title.