HARPENDEN III : 4
WELWYN GARDEN CITY II: 2
18.11.06

After the previous week's morale boosting three points against Luton Vagrants, Harpenden were looking to consolidate their mid table position against Welwyn 2s at The Brache on Saturday. The home side came bursting out of the blocks, taking a 3-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes.

The opening goal followed excellent work by James Bird, who has made the right half position his own after a string of impressive performances since being liberated from full back, mixing self-proclaimed skill with his widely renowned steel. His pass found Tom Preest out wide on the right, whose cross found Alex Flitcroft in the D, and the 3rd XI's very own goal machine converted again, scoring for the second match in succession and taking his tally in the league this season to a highly impressive 6.

Simon Redford's men were playing their most fluent hockey for some time, moving the ball swiftly across the pitch, this approach was epitomised no better than by Andy Lunn, who is performing with increasing authority this season. Lunn joined one attack to great effect, a beautiful ball finding Ben Thompson in the D. The striker still had work to do but skilfully engineered the room for a shot, and emphatically beat the keeper as the ball banged into the bottom right hand corner. The early goal scoring was completed by Ali Holland, who was alert to the possibility presented to him by the ball falling loose after the breakdown of a short corner routine.

Welwyn responded to the 3-0 deficit by throwing men forward and exerted some pressure of the Harpenden back line, which was not dealt with wholly confidently. An admirable exception to this was goal keeper Matt Beggs, who produced a series of increasingly skilful and brave saves as the game progressed. The Whites seemed to lose their shape as Welwyn came back into the game, and rather inevitably were able to get a goal back before half time.

The 3-1 score line presented something of a dilemma for captain Redford, in that he could either extol the virtues of the home side's display in the opening 20 minutes or point out the deficiencies of the final 15. The skipper not unreasonably choose the latter, emphasising in no uncertain terms that the points were certainly there for the losing.

The Whites responded to these words with a much improved performance in the second period. Much of this was due to creativity, verve and pace of youngsters Tom Ford and Oliver Moore. Moore, playing in the gap behind the strikers was a constant threat, his passes prompting his older team mates to make runs that they might otherwise not have seen. Ford also played very well up front, he produced a fine piece of skill and a good cross to set up a great chance that not one but two colleagues failed to convert as the ball went across the face of the goal.

Welwyn were still presenting an attacking threat, Harpenden's rear guard held firm, a good performance from Martin Pugh meant that little of any real danger came from the right hand side. Yet the visitors had a series of short corners, Beggs making some of his more memorable saves from these.

Eventually Harpenden got a short corner of their own. Once again the planned move broke down, but Neil Liles showed great presence of both mind and body to recycle the ball and create a shooting chance. His well struck effort was stopped by a foot on the line, the umpire having little hesitation in awarding a stroke. The penalty was beautifully dispatched by Thompson, and the points were safe. There was still time for Welwyn to force a penalty flick of their own, which they converted to complete the scoring with the last action of the game.

Redford was momentarily buoyant after the game, until he found out that the availability of his side for next week was subject to an exodus that would trouble Moses,

"This was just the kind of win we needed, and if we can get rid of a mid match blips and get people playing every week, we can look forward to the rest of the season with increasing confidence. You can burn my house, or steal my car, but don't you say we don't belong in this company".

Match Report by Tom Preest

Team:
Matt Beggs, Simon Redford (Capt), Andy Lunn, Neil Liles, Martin Pugh, James Bird, Alex Flitcroft, Ali Holland, Ben Thompson, Oliver Moore, Tom Preest and Tom Ford.

Scorers
1) Alex Flitcroft
2) Ben Thompson
3) Ali Holland
4) Ben Thompson