HARPENDEN II: 3
ROYSTON II: 2
23.02.2008

Harpenden maintained their 100% home record with a fine victory against Royston in what was the proverbial game of two halves. Pete Kneale’s men knew they needed to beat their visitors to consolidate their second place in the league, rather than have the visitors close the points gap to just one point.

But after a strong opening ten minutes, Harpenden seemed to lose their focus and proceeded to put in arguably their worst half of hockey this season. Close to full strength with the return of Ben Turner, Russ Timms and young prospect Tom Gosling, Harpenden’s passing was a pale shadow of that the week before, with players resorting to long hopeful passes or aimless balls into the channels. It came as no surprise when Royston took a deserved leading after a cross from the right found their centre forward unmarked at the back post. Pulling the strings in midfield was a diminutive Steve Irwin lookalike, and as the half time break approached, Kneale was no doubt strategising as to how best to nullify Royston’s star player. His team talk was made a little easier when Harpenden forced a short corner on the stroke of half-time. The whistle had been blown, meaning that the ensuing set-piece would be the last action before the oranges. Harpenden loaded everyone forward, with even defensive stalwart Graham Smith having a rare excursion beyond the halfway line. The initial strike was saved but the ball fell kindly to Timms who fired home.

“We were dealt a Get Out of Jail Free Card there” commented Kneale at his post match press conference. “We’d been poor - shocking - in the first half and to be honest could have had no complaints going in a goal down. I gave the lads the hairdryer treatment at the break, and asked for a response. I got one.”

From a Harpenden perspective, the second half was as good as the second poor. Demonstrating the strategic bravery and tactical nous of Carling Cup winning Juande Ramos, Kneale brought on Gosling at left back to do a containing job on Royston’s dangerous right winger, and reverted to the lone-striker Christmas Tree formation that had accounted for West Herts so well the week before. Harpenden were a changed team, with intelligent off-the-ball movement rewarded by crisp passing and, now outnumbered in midfield, Royston didn’t have an answer. Niall Blackwell was crudely hauled down on the 25 having beaten his marker, who subsequently spent the next ten minutes watching from the sidelines. While the whites didn’t actually score during this period, they ran the visitors ragged and their confidence grew. With the numbers back to parity, it still seemed as if Harpenden had an extra man, and when another crude challenge saw a fine run by Fraser Tant curtailed, Sam Martyn was on hand to despatch the resulting short corner, albeit courtesy of a deflection.

Harpenden continued in the same vein and extended their lead when the captain notched his second goal in two weeks through a clever deflection from Martyn’s ball into the D. Royston were given a lifeline when a penalty flick was controversially awarded after the ball struck Smith’s foot, despite the shot looking unlikely to hit the target. Everyone’s favourite sadly-deceased-Australian-reptile-expert lookalike despatched the strike, although keeper Ben Brind was only millimetres away from making the save. Harpenden looked to play out time and were perhaps a little naïve in trying to dribble out of defence rather than look for Row Z – or rather, the now sadly defunct Strokers Coffee Bar. Mirroring the end of the first half, a short corner was awarded on the final whistle, with Royston sending everyone forward to try and claim what would have been and ill-deserved point. Their efforts were thwarted and Harpenden had recorded yet another victory by the odd-goal.

“We know that, if we go up, it’s not going to be on goal difference” mused goalscorer Sam Martyn “so we have to make sure that we win 4 out of 5 remaining games if we want to play Div 2 hockey next year. We’re up for the challenge.”

Harpenden face strugglers Blueharts and Southgate Adelaide before the season denouement of three six pointers against Luton, Stevenage and Rickmansworth.

Scorers
1) Russell Timms
2) Sam Martyn
3) Peter Kneale