Hertford: 1
Harpenden II: 2
29 November 2003

Harpenden's efforts over recent weeks were at last rewarded with victory and three points away to fellow strugglers Hertford on Saturday.

The previous week had seen the blues compete admirably but sink to a unfortunate late winner to new league leaders Bedford, so it was perhaps just desserts that the end of Harps' dismal run should come despite not really playing very well and, in fairness to Hertford, perhaps a little against the run of play.

Harps started well and after just five minutes, Dave Munton's excellent ball out of defence found skipper Fraser Tant in plenty of space. He quickly fed in Rich Stock who had timed his lateral run to perfection and made no mistake in slotting the ball past the advancing keeper for his first goal in Harpenden colours. "Yeah, it's been a long time coming" commented Gravy, "but at the end of the day I don't care who scores as long as we get the three points."

With man of the match Dave Waters linking well with his right sided colleague Niall Crossin' Blackwell, the blues had a reasonable number of chances, with Stock spurning a half-chance to put his team two to the good. But at the other end only a tremendous double save from stopper Ben Brind prevented Hertford drawing level, and their short corner tally got higher and higher. With the midfield strings being pulled by another classic Div 3SW lookalike Paulo di Canio (better than Dorigo but still not a patch on Manilow), and with the blues outnumbered in midfield, an equaliser seemed a probability, but Harps kept things level until the break.

Ten minutes in to the second half, Hertford were level, breaking quickly down the middle and crashing the ball past Brind. But, it was rewarding to see that Harpenden's heads didn't go down and, as both sides pushed forward in search of the winner, the game really opened up. Tom Vickerton was posing problems down the left, while Niall McAlister was beginning to find his range at centre midfield. With less than two minutes on the clock, Stock put Tant through on the half way line, and, against all expectations, the front man outpaced his man, and saw his shot deflect off the covering defender's foot. The resultant short corner was switched to McAlister and the keeper could only parry the Irishman's shot to Tant, who smashed home his 5th goal in 8 games.

Hertford threw everyone forward to try and salvage a point, and indeed nearly did when Waters drifted off and left his man free at the back post, only to see the striker's lame effort squirt wide. But, Harps held out for only their second win of the season and play host to fellow strugglers St Albans Exiles next week in good cheer. "Tharll be anertha sacks pinter thart well" said West Country lad Waters, although nobody could understand what on earth he was saying. "Un Eff we plays loik way ded genst Artfa, whell be ahl roit."

Muddy Waters : MoM Performance from the Wezz Cunnery lad

We're moving up the table! click here to see the proof