BROXBOURNE IV: 1
HARPENDEN III: 7
27.01.07

These two sides have contested a number of thrilling and close encounters over recent seasons, so the one sided nature of this match was a surprising if welcome fillip for Simon Redford's team.

The fast pitch suited Harpenden's new attacking style, with Ben Thompson prominent in his new role behind the front two. Harpenden's greatest threat came down the right flank. James Bird continued to excel in his new right half position. However, Adam Cole at full back was undoubtedly the revelation of the day, combining with those ahead of him and over lapping to great effect in the first half. Cole also showed a more measured and tenacious side to his game later in the match, when dealing with Broxbourne’s skilful South of England age group winger with a good deal more patience not to mention success than some of his older team mates.

Tom Preest opened the scoring after 15 minutes, converting a great cross from Fraser Tant with a deft if perhaps not wholly intentional flick inside the near post. Thompson added a second a few minutes later after a strong run and shot from the top of the D.

The best two goals of the half were to come though. The first of these was a collector’s item from Bird, liberated in his new attacking role the big right half advanced skilfully into the D, before studiously ignoring better placed team mates and dispatching the ball firmly into the far corner. Fraser Tant completed the scoring, beautifully creating space for a shot on the turn that found the bottom corner.

At 4-0 even Redford could only find minor criticisms in his half time pep talk, mainly exhorting the defence to keep a clean sheet. Fears of a home side revival were put on hold almost straight away after Niall Blackwell sent in an excellent goal bound sweep following a short corner. A defenders foot repelled the ball, and Thompson confidently scored from the resultant flick.

The half rather meandered from here on in, with Harpenden looking for more goals and Broxbourne becoming increasingly more resilient both in defence and attack. Indeed the home side saw much more of the ball in the second half and it took all the considerable skills of Neil Liles, Matt Beggs in goal and returning Samurai warrior James Rodwell to keep them at bay.

At the other end the Broxbourne keeper pulled off a number of fine saves, not least from the impressive Tom Ward, who was unlucky not to round off an excellent performance with a goal. There were no such problems for Tant, who was a constant danger to the home side. He scored his second by rounding the keeper and finishing from a difficult angle and then completed his hat trick in similar fashion just before the end.

In-between times Broxbourne had themselves scored after a short corner had only been half cleared. Even though his side didn't quite keep a clean sheet, Redford's only main gripe in the changing room was asking why his new striker Tant (who it might be noted had actually scored a hat trick) always took the "difficult route" to goal? Still if we accepted mediocrity............................


Match Report by Tom Preest

Scorers
1) Tom Preest
2) Ben Thompson (2)
3) James Bird
4) Fraser Tant (3)