Waltham Forest took three points in the first of two consecutive local derbies, but were made to work for their 1-0 win by a determined Ilford side.

The opening few minutes of yesterday's game were dominated by Forest and they were rewarded for their good attacking play on 18 minutes when Jeff Hammond was given acres of space, enabling him to unleash a powerful shot into the top corner from 25 yards.

Only moments later it could have been two, but Rob Budd did well to send Manu Dagher’s shot just wide.

Clearly unimpressed with his side’s start, Colin Walton made an early change, bringing on former Stag Lee Flavin.

Josh Bonnett then created two excellent chances for Forest. First he sent in a curling cross which only needed the faintest of touches to be turned in, and moments later he hit the post after a great move of short passing around the Ilford area.

Ilford only had one real chance in the first half.

Aime Blessing was set through on goal but his awful first touch of a bouncing ball saw it go out of play for a throw.

Two games in three days clearly affected Forest more than Ilford, as the home side came out of half-time with their tails up.

Mojeed and Hammond were both booked early in the second half - Hammond for adopting an aggressive attitude and his team-mate for a late tackle.

Forest earned a corner, but Ilford broke well and grabbed themselves a free-kick on the edge of the area. Marvin Hong curled the ball over the wall but Omand was equal to his shot in the Forest goal, turning it around the post.

Forest’s only real chances of the second half came with about five minutes to play.

Hammond laid the ball off to Bonnett in the area, whose shot was saved by Budd at the expense of a corner. From the resulting set piece, Forest had the ball cleared off the line twice.

With only seconds to go Ilford had their last chance of the match with a corner which Budd came up for, but the Forest defence stood strong and saw the match out.

Waltham Forest: Omand, Sackey, Nicholas, Mojeed, Green, Douglas, Dagher (Imbert), Dauti, Palmer (Shittu), Hammond (Melton), Bonnett. Not used: Kendall and Healey.