| BISHOPS
STORTFORD V: 2
HARPENDEN III: 1
01.12.2007
The long trip to the American school at
Stortford is rarely fruitful, especially when playing in the final
slot of the day and so it proved for Pete Evans’ men on
this Advent jaunt. Not only were all the students absent, but
the home side had obviously undergone a transformation in strength
as miraculous in it’s own way as the virgin birth, and consequently
played very much unlike a team propping up the wrong half of the
table.
The visitors were
missing a number of key players and came under pressure from the
off. However they did some attacking of their own in the opening
10 minutes, with Andy Baradell looking particularly dangerous
up front. Stortford were asserting their dominance however, especially
in midfield and quickly swept into a 2-0 lead, with a couple of
well-taken goals.
The home side continued to attack from all
areas, and soon earned further reward in the shape of a penalty
flick. Young goalkeeper Matt Beggs is forging something of a reputation
of being unbeatable from the spot; the youngster can take credit
for making himself as big as possible on this occasion, as the
ball sailed past the far post.
Harpenden were still in the game and set
about breaking down the Stortford defence with renewed vigour.
Baradell has added a much-needed touch of class to the threes’
forward line since his arrival at the club, and scored with a
beautiful deflection just before half time to make the game wide
open again.
Both sides exchanged chances during the
second half, without either quite being able to dominate. As the
minutes ticked by it looked like one mistake or moment of skill
might settle it, and unsurprisingly it was the former that led
to Tom Preest having a chance to equalise in the dying seconds.
The home side’s keeper was quick to spot the danger however
and closed the veteran striker down before he could get his shot
away.
The game thus ended with a win for the home
side, as the threes league form splutters towards mediocrity.
Report by Tom Preest
Team: Matt Beggs, Martin
Pugh, Neil Liles, Geoff Gould, Stuart Berry, Pete Evans (C), Adam
Cole, Jon Pagan, Andy Lunn, Andy Barradell, Tom Preest,
Paul Clements
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Scorers
1) Andy Barradell
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