Leytonstone Ilford are a football club that, with hindsight, feel like just one cog in a chain of mergers and re-badgings. Boro’ came up against the combined forces of Leytonstone and Ilford just twice in the end. And both were during the 1986-7 league season. To be honest, our record isn’t really worth spending much time on. We lost by a single goal in each fixture time as the east London side went on to seal the Vauxhall Opel League Division One title by 13 points.
In 1988, a whole decade without a merger gave them itchy feet. So, first they absorbed Walthamstow Avenue and, a season later, they rebranded as Redbridge Forest. Not satisfied with that, the club then merged again in 1992 – with Dagenham, just to be clear. Unsurprisingly, this led to the formation of Dagenham & Redbridge. As we write 30 years down the line, we guess the folks down there are now happy with how everything is. No more mergers for now, then.
