BLUEHARTS III: 2
HARPENDEN II: 4
01.03.2008

Harpenden’s Second Team kept on track for promotion with a relatively comfortable, if less than efficient, victory against strugglers Blueharts on Saturday.

Pete Kneale’s men were always going to be favourites in this game, but they seemed to already have an eye on some tricky remaining fixtures without fully focussing on the matter at hand. They were perhaps a little fortunate that they weren’t up against stronger opposition, otherwise this somewhat lackadaisical attitude might not have gone unpunished.

Harpenden have tended to start strongly this season, but began slowly, perhaps affected by the late 16.30 pushback. Blueharts dominated possession early on, but nervous of their high-flying visitors, seemed content to knock the ball around the back four rather than commit forward. What resulted was a rather stodgy period of play in which few risks were taken and few chances created. As the half progressed. Harpenden gradually rose to ascendancy, claiming more of the possession and looking the more likely to score.

The deadlock was broken after 20 minutes, Sam Martyn continued his fine run from short corners with a crisp strike into the corner. The goal lifted Harpenden’s confidence and over the next fifteen minutes they produced the best hockey of the game, carving their hosts apart with ease and looking every inch the title contender. The 2nd goal came from another short-corner which was switched to expectant father Russell Timms, who nearly broke the backboard with a ferocious finish on 25 minutes, and when youngster Ollie Moore set Nigel Timms free in the dying second of the half, the latter ran through on goal and surprised everyone with a tremendous drive into the top corner.

So, 3-0 at the break, and the job was done – or so Harpenden’s second half attitude would suggest. Perhaps Timms’ goal was actually detrimental to the team’s efforts, as they approached the second half as if the points were in the bag. Sloppy passing, lack of off-the-ball movement, poor communication and individual errors suddenly crept into their game, and with 10 minutes of the half gone, Blueharts scored a deserved goal and suddenly felt they were in with a chance. A minute later, they had reduced the deficit to just one goal, and they most certainly were. Jolted back in to action, Harpenden bucked their ideas up a little and began to play a little better, but needed a fourth goal to calm their nerves. It came when another goal-bound Martyn short corner struck a foot on the line, resulting in a penalty flick. This rather caught the whites by surprise, having not had a p-flick all season. Obvious candidate Timms Sr was off the pitch, so with all his men desperately trying to avoid catching his eye, skipper Kneale stepped up and beat the keeper, albeit in less than convincing fashion via ricochets off various parts of the keeper’s accoutrements. Crisis averted, Harpenden closed the game out relatively comfortably to register their 13th win of the season and remain 4 points clear of 3rd placed Winchmore Hill & Enfield.

Of his flick, Kneale mused “Yeah, hardly the best you’ll ever see, but I don’t care about that. It went in, that’s all that matters, and our destiny is still in our hands. We can’t expect any favours from other clubs, so it’s down to us to register three wins from four to play in Division 2 next season.”

Scorers
1) Sam Martyn
2) Russell Timms
3) Nigel Timms
4) Pete Kneale