POOLE TOWN 3 HARROW BORO 3

Exactly one month after the comeback at Weymouth, another trip to Dorset saw another late revival from Harrow.

And this one was way more extraordinary, as up until the final minutes of the game, when they scored twice to take home a point, Borough’s performance had been, frankly, dreadful. But Steve Baker’s side this season have a fantastic team spirit, and that never-give-up attitude saw them through here.

Mitchal Gough had been joined on the injured list by George Fenton, and when Jordan Ireland broke down in the warm-up it meant a further re-jigging in the ranks. On probably the widest pitch in the league, Baker went with a sole front man, Ryan Moss, supported by Michael Bryan and Max Holland on the flanks. It didn’t work. Moss spent the first half waiting for crosses that never came, most irritatingly when a player got into a position to cross but then chose to take another touch and lost the opportunity, while there was no-one alongside him to play it to when he won a ball played downfield. Consequently, a side that hadn’t won a home league game since October was able to grab the initiative.

On a bitterly cold night when pre-match health and safety announcements told spectators not to use the lethally-slippery metal banked terracing, it was the hosts, who’d let in five in their last game, who made the early running. Roberts fired well over from a right-wing cross, and then went closer with a low drive that went narrowly wide. Harrow’s first threat was when Nathaniel Oseni got a toe to a Bryan near-post corner but Cairney gathered the ball low down. It was to be his only save of the night. A home forward found himself in space and let fly, but Shaun Preddie made a fine, brave block.

How many headed goals have Harrow let in from corners this campaign? They had prior warning of the home side’s threat when Brooks got up unopposed to one but headed it over, but the alarm bells had not rung loud enough for, in the 30th minute, another right-wing corner was won in the air by Constable, with Brooks on hand to redirect his header into the goal.

Worse followed two minutes later. Harrow lost the ball in midfield – a constant feature in the first half, and Poole were away rapidly on the left. Roberts got into the box and squared for Constable who finished into the bottom corner.

Frank Keita was next to give the ball away carelessly and Leslie-Smith advanced to shoot wide. A Bryan cross, nowhere near its intended recipient, nearly crept in at the far post, but the half ended with the home fans serenading off the Harrow side with ‘how s**t must you be, we’re winning at home’.

Changes had to be made and Josh Andrew and Andre Odetola, who’d endured an awful league debut, were hooked. George Moore and Dylan Kearney came on and at last Harrow had the chance of holding the ball up and a better chance of threatening Cairney’s goal. Kearney had a sighter that went way over before another shot was blocked. But The Dolphins’ threat had not gone away and they still looked the more likely side to score. Hafed Al-Droubi saved Griffin’s angled shot and when a rusty-looking Moore gave away possession, the Borough keeper held Roberts’s effort.

A calamitous piece of home defending gave Harrow an apparent lifeline in the 67th minute. Bryan got the ball wide to Moss, and Cairney and his defenders left his cross to each other, the keeper the man at fault as he clearly shouted for the ball. Kearney is not one to refuse such gifts, and he turned the ball in from six yards.

Poole were now showing signs of nerves, and when Holland made a great run up the left and pulled the ball back to Moore on the edge of the box, the visiting fans waited for the net to bulge, but Moore steered the ball over the bar. And it looked as though that might have been the key moment in the game when, in the 79th minute, Poole regained their two-goal cushion. Harrow won a free-kick just inside the home half and, seeking the equaliser, the centre-backs went forward. But Keita’s delivery was awful, straight to Cairney who immediately punted it downfield. Scrimshaw, just off the bench, ran on past the sole Borough defender and lofted the ball over the out-rushing Al-Droubi.

Their football may have been poor but their spirit wasn’t: Harrow did keep going. Mark McLeod headed over a Keita corner. Bryan had struggled in the second half, operating in an area on the wide right that resembled a bog, and Anthony O’Connor had been brought on and was staying wide right. Moss met his cross at the near post but sent it wide but then, in the 90th minute, another O’Connor cross was controlled calmly by Holland, who drove it low past Cairney.

Three minutes stoppage-time were indicated. Although clearly nervy, Poole seemed to be managing the game as they took the ball to the right-hand corner in the third of those minutes. But Borough won it back, Holland picked it up and broke through centre-field into home territory. On the edge of the area, he slipped it to Kearney, who turned past a challenge and hammered the ball past his near-namesake for the equaliser, his 17th league goal of the campaign.

With a decent Harrow following – is there another club where such a high proportion of the home support regularly join their team on the road? - celebrating, there was still time to almost throw away the hard work, as Poole were allowed to advance on the left and Al-Droubi had to go full-length at his near post to save. Only then could players and fans celebrate as one.

Baker will know that you cannot expect displays like this one to harvest further points, but he’ll probably know also that his starting formation was wrong. Harrow travel to a lowly Basingstoke Town side on Saturday, opponents who’ll consider themselves to have been very unlucky not to have taken something from their trip to Harrow in November.

POOLE TOWN: Luke Cairney, Jordan Alawode-Williams, Josh Leslie-Smith, Will Spetch, Jamie Whisken, Jake Smeeton (sub James Boote, 90 mins), Sam Griffin, Corby Moore, James Constable (sub Jake Scrimshaw, 72 mins), Marvin Brooks, Luke Roberts (sub Jez Bedford, 87 mins). Unused subs: Sam House, Jack Dickson.

HARROW BOROUGH: Hafed Al-Droubi, Josh Andrew (sub George Moore, h-t), Ryan Haugh, Shaun Preddie, Nathaniel Oseni, Mark McLeod (booked, 85 mins), Frank Keita, Andre Odetola (sub Dylan Kearney, h-t), Ryan Moss, Michael Bryan (sub Anthony O’Connor, 74 mins), Max Holland. Unused subs: Jordan Ireland, Lewis Cole.

Referee: Mr D O’Shea

Att. 277

By Simon Grigor