NORWICH UNION: 2
HARPENDEN: 3
19.10.05


It took a dramatic penalty stroke with the very last touch of the match from Harpenden skipper Michael Emes to give the visitors the three points their domination for much of the game had deserved.

In the dying moments with the scores level at two goals a piece a smart move down the Harpenden right wing which involved an interchange of passes between Kevin Moxham and Ali Hutson forced a penalty corner.

Harpenden's slick penalty corner routine produced a fine flick from Emes, the Norwich keeper could only deflect the ball onto a foot of a defender, with Nigel Timms ready to pounce, resulting in an inevitable penalty stroke. Emes stepped forward and calmly slotted the ball to the left of the keeper as he dived to his right. This gave Emes his third goal of the match and the visitors a three goals to two victory and three more valuable points.

The visitors domination of the game was almost total except for a ten minute period in the second half when Norwich came back from being two goals behind. During this period Harpenden struggled to cope with the direct tactics of the Norfolk club.

This period aside Harps produced some stunning hockey which resulted in a two goal lead. Both goals came from quality penalty corner strikes from the Harpenden skipper. The first corner was set up after Lance Boyd-Clarke who dominated the midfield battle all afternoon won the ball in the middle of the pitch, he switched play to the left where Todd Baines beat two players before releasing Hutson who was fouled just as he was about to shoot. The second corner came after a good interchange between Paul Nash and Russell Timms.

After the first two goals Harpenden continued to threaten down both flanks with right back Paul Davison on numerous occasions undoing the tight Norwich defence with 50 yard aerials into the path of the onrushing Baines. This tactic nearly produced a third goal which would have made it impossible for Norwich to force their way back into the game but on this occasion Timms sent Baines's cross narrowly wide of the goal.

Norwich's two goals came in a five minute period deep in the second half both from scrappy goal mouth scrambles and could easily have unsettled Harpenden to the point where they may have even lost the match but to their credit and even though there was only a few minutes remaining Harpenden continued to push forward and were ultimately rewarded for this adventure with a winner which keeps them firmly at the top of the league.

Report by David Jeffrey

Skipper Mike Emes: Lead from the front with hatrick