| HARPENDEN
II: 2
BISHOP STORTFORD III: 6
02.12.06
Harpenden
were back at the Brache on Saturday, hosting Bishop Stortford
3s and keen to avenge a 7-0 drubbing dished out by Stortford’s
second team a fortnight ago.
That the league’s finest lookalike –
kitch 70’s lounge bar lothario Barry Manilow - was back
playing for the visitors added extra spice to a fixture that the
blues, no, whites, were confident would see them return to winning
ways. The visitors, seemingly unaware that Harpenden now play
in white, had arrived in their white away shirts. Fortunately,
Harpenden 4s were on hand to kindly lend Stortford the lucky orange
shirts in which they had won every game; Perhaps, in retrospect,
this is where it all went wrong.
In stark contrast to the storms the week before,
when the blues just about Made it Through The Rain to draw at
Cheshunt, the match was played in unseasonably clement weather
– sunshine and blue skies the likes of which one rarely
sees When October Goes, more suited to the Copacabana than the
Brache Arena. Having not won for 4 games, skipper Pete Kneale
told his team it was time they started Tryin’ To Get The
Feeling Again. When on form, the blues make Beautiful Music, but
it was the visitors who were in tune from the start, burying a
short corner that promising young keeper Matt Beggs could do nothing
about in the very first minute.
Harpenden regrouped, and started to dominate possession.
On the right wing, Fraser Tant – back from a Weekend in
New England – was causing problems, linking well with midfield
dynamo Paul Nash and finding a real New York City Rhythm. After
10 minutes, youngster Simon Evans released pace-ace Nigel Timms,
who sped past the centre back, went round the keeper and pulled
the trigger. Could it be Magic? No - his effort hit the post and
trickled away to safety. Harpenden continued to play the better
hockey and surged onwards, veteran Irish poacher Niall McAlister
going close and Timms again just inches away from converting a
fine cross by David Waters. “Man, D delivered a great
ball there” commented Timms, “Even Now, It’s
A Miracle I didn’t put it away.”
The second goal is often the most important one
in a fixture, and it was a killer blow to Harpenden when, just
before the interval and after a lengthy spell of possession for
his team, Tant was dispossessed on the halfway line, leaving his
team exposed. Stortford broke away, and a fine cross found the
centre forward unmarked in front of goal, Ready to Take A Chance
Again. 2-0, and it was an uphill struggle. “Some Kind
of Friend I am” commented the former skipper, disconsolately.
“That one’s going to linger in the Memory for a long
while – certainly until Daybreak.”
But, at the interval, Pete Kneale and his trusty
sideline lieutenant Neil Liles spoke with One Voice. “If
we can get the next goal, we’ll be right back in this game.
I Write The Songs – you boys get out there and sing them!”
Sadly, within moments of the second half starting,
his team were 3-nil and then 4-0 down, breakaways again being
their downfall. Thereafter, they were just playing for pride,
which was restored in part by two neat Timms goals, although these
were matched by two further goals for Stortford as Harpenden heads
dropped.
"It was disappointing, I’m not
going to lie. Looks Like We Made It hard for ourselves and frankly
we’re all Lonely Together."
said Kneale. "Somewhere Down The Road we’ll get
a victory, but until then all we can do is look at our recent
results and Read 'Em and Weep."
Match
report by Fraser Tant
|
Timms Jnr: Keeps scoring
Scorers
1) Nigel Timms
2) Nigel Timms
|
