Blues go down to single-goal defeat

Sunny Saturday woe

Bostik League North Division
Saturday 17th February 2018
Hertford Town 0(0) Haringey Borough 1(0)

Promotion-chasing Haringey Borough were made to work hard for their three valuable points in this closely fought match. A single second half goal was sufficient to secure their win but there were many occasions in the game when the Blues might have repeated their victory in the return fixture, earlier in the season.

The Blues started very well and enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges. The visitors looked threatening on the break but it was the Blues who exerted the most pressure. Some very good passing moves were at the heart of many promising attacks but, disappointingly, there was a lack cutting edge in front of goal and by the time the half-time whistle was blown the teams were each giving as good as they got.

The second half saw the Borough coming out a little stronger and within eight minutes they had scored what proved to be the decisive goal. A 25-yard free kick struck the underside of the bar and their Lawrence Yiga reacted the quickest to head the loose ball home. The Blues’ appeals for offside unfortunately went unheeded.

Having taken the lead, the visitors then also took a stranglehold on the game which they never really looked like releasing. In truth, they had two further chances to increase their lead while they restricted the Blues to one shot on target; a 15-yard effort from Eman Osei which was well saved.

The Blues will have been disappointed with the result but they can take heart from the fact that they more than matched their opponents for long periods of the game.

Team:, Charlie Mann, Matt Thomson, Michael Toner, Phil Lowen, Ollie Sharman, Jason Beck, Ricky Light(George Lutaaya 76’), Luke Illsley, Emmanuel Osei, Charlie Ruff((Charlie Cole 66’) and Brett O’Connor.

Subs not used: Dan Palmer and Ollie Stewart.

Match report by Ray Greenall