BAE: 1
HARPENDEN III: 4
28.01.06

Ali Keith's side collected another valuable 3 points away from home last Saturday. The score-line was more emphatic than the performance, which was strangely lack-lustre throughout. It is an oddity worth noting that in their 3 league matches since Christmas, the Blues performed better in the game they lost than either of their two victories. However, winning when playing below par is often the hallmark of successful teams, and is certainly not the worse trait to be taking into a promotion battle.

There were a number of changes in personnel on Saturday, particularly in defence where Martin Pugh was the only survivor from the previous game. Al Clarke joined Pugh in the centre of the rear guard, both turned in excellent performances in unfamiliar positions. Clarke was especially impressive, whether making goal line clearances from short corners, or adding a new dimension to Harpenden attacks through sheer weight of his passes. Andy Lunn and James Evans had good games at full back, working hard to contain the surprisingly fluid and inventive home forwards.

Harpenden generally had the better of the opening exchanges without creating any clear-cut chances. After 15 minutes good work down the right by Lunn and Ali Holland led to the Blues winning a short corner. Tom Preest converted this with a clean strike, and the 3s took the lead. After some scares at the other end the Blues were given another short. The initial effort was blocked, but Pete Evans reacted fastest and used his skill to engineer another opening, this too was deflected, the ball falling to Holland who dispatched his opportunity high into the net in emphatic fashion. The Blues continued their remarkable short corner conversion rate just before the break, when Paul Clements made himself available at left slip and planted his flick into the bottom corner. The Blues took a 3-0 lead into half time, without ever being in total control of a game the respective league positions suggested they should have been dominating.

BA started the second half strongly, and even the introduction of Ryan "Ginola" Ely to the Blues line up could not turn the tide in the visitors favour. BA's persistance finally paid off, when they scored the game's first goal from open play after 10 minutes of the second period. With 25 minutes to go a comeback was not beyond the home side, especially as Harpenden were still not hitting their highest gears. The Blues defence came under some pressure, especially from a series of shirt corners. However, led by John Allen in goal who made a number of good saves they proved they were up to the task and kept the 2-goal lead in tact. The Blues were not entirely spent as an attacking force in the period, Ali Keith nearly sealing the match with a captain's goal, narrowly failing to convert a 1 on 1 with the keeper after a storming break from midfield.

Finally, as it seems to do so almost inevitably these days, the Ely effect came into play. The young forward must be wondering what more he has to do to get skipper Keith to give him a starting role. He was a constant menace to the BA back-line; always making good use of the space they had mistakenly offered him. Receiving the ball at the top of D, Ely turned and found Preest with a brilliant pass inside the full back. Preest managed to squeeze his shot past the keeper to restore the 3-goal cushion.

The goal finally killed off the BA challenge, and the match rather meandered to its conclusion. Ely went close to capping his performance with a goal, forcing a good save at the near post, and BA had some short corners towards the end, but the 3 points were secure.

Keith was philosophical in victory; "In the final analysis a win's a win, and 3 points will keep the pressure on the teams around us at the top of the table. It would have been nice to have performed to our full potential, but it's often a funny game against BA at the John Henry Newman. In that sense this was another potential banana well avoided, and a performance we can build on".