West Herts III: 3
Harpenden II: 0
15 November 2003

Things go from bad to worse for the 2s as they registed a record fifth consecutive defeats against West Herts IIIs on Saturday.

Arguably the only highlight of the day was a chance to reacquaint ourselves with one of the all time classic lookalikes Tony Dorigo, who's been plying his trade in other divisions for a few years. But, Dorigo and his defensive cohorts came away with a clean sheet as, despite a great deal of pressure, plenty of short corners and a fair few chances, Harpenden were unable - again - to hit the back of the net.

Harps started the stronger, with Fraser Tant, Ben Thompson and Niall McAlister all seeing shots pushed wide by the host's keeper. But, when the deadlock was broken, it wasn't from Harpenden, as West Herts' potent centre forward (who it should be mentioned looked uncannily like Colin Montgomery) drag-flicked a short corner past the helpless Ben Brind.

At 1-0 at the break, Harpenden were still well in the game, and felt genuinely confident that they would get something out of it. Chances came and went, while Andy Lunn in particular did an excellent man-to-man job on Monty. But, as has happened on countless occaisions this season, their incessant pursuit of an equaliser proved Harpenden's downfall. Gaps began to appear in defence as men were thrown forward, and towards the end of the game a one goal advantage became two, and then three.

Harps have now bagged just 6 goals in 8 games while leaking like a colander at the other end but, says Lunn, the team are confident that an improvement is just around the corner. "We just need to bag a spawny goal from somewhere, anywhere, to get some confidence up, and we can drag ourselves away from the relegation zone. To a man, we're going to give it our utmost to keep HHC 2s where the belong - and that's in the same league as Dorigo, Di Canio, Arthur Fowler and Manilow."

Dorigo: One of the all time great lookalikes

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