HARROW BORO 2 LEATHERHEAD 2

at Earlsmead.

Josh Webb was back in a Harrow line-up that was still showing lots of injury absentees, and it was the visitors who looked the sharper from the start. A quick break saw a dangerous Mahal cross intercepted by Shaun Preddie, before Collin cracked a shot over the bar from 25 yards. Mahal then made another fine run, going past James Dobson and Tom Willment before cracking a shot across the goalmouth. Harrow’s first attempt on goal saw Spencer McCall’s over-the-shoulder effort fly over. And it was Harrow who took the lead in the 24th minute. McCall sent Lewis Driver in through the inside-right channel. Although he declined the chance to shoot, he crossed, Fejiri Okenabirhie stepped over the ball, and Harry Newman drove it in from five yards.

Driver should have doubled the lead, sent clear with only Wells to beat, but the experienced Tanners keeper stretched out a strong left hand to turn the ball away. Willment made a good headed clearance from Collin’s cross, and Watt headed wide from Mahal’s deep cross. Adeloye and Collin then switched the ball to their left, setting up Hughes-Mason who ought to have scored but fired over. But Harrow were guilty of an even bigger miss when Driver and Okenabirhie combined on the left, and Driver pulled the ball to the far post where Dylan Cascoe managed to miscontrol the ball when it seemed easier to score.

A Harrow trait that must be worrying Steve Baker is a slackness at the start of the second half, and this was seen again here. In the 49th minute, Adeloye was not closed down on the edge of the box and he cracked a vicious drive past Joe McDonnell from 20 yards to level the score.

Cascoe, Okenabirhie and Driver opened up the Leatherhead defence for McCall to hit a fierce shot from 15 yards that Wells batted away, and Driver’s far post header from Okenabirhie’s floated cross went wide, but Leatherhead went ahead in the 61st minute when Harrow’s left side was exposed, and Mahal cut in to clip the ball over McDonnell.

Again there were problems on the left of the Harrow rearguard as full-back Cash got forward, cut inside and drew a fine low save from McDonnell. Adeloye shot over when a Willment header fell at his feet. A couple of substitutions then livened up Harrow. A Cascoe cross saw a Driver header blocked as Harrow mounted a late attempt to avoid ending the season with three successive defeats. And that paid off when, in the 86th minute, Okenabirhie’s fine cross from the right was met by a beautiful guided right-footer from Driver, the ball flying over Wells and into the far corner.

So, with 54 points, Harrow had an improvement of one on last season’s total, scoring two more goals and conceding three more. However, it was a totally different season with, this time, a strong start but then a period in the late winter when it all looked like going horribly wrong. The long spring injury list did not help either. Baker will probably want to keep the bulk of the current squad, though it is clear to followers, and surely to him too, that there are a couple of positions where strengthening is required. We’ll be back in August to start the whole thing again!

HARROW BOROUGH: Joe McDonnell, Josh Webb, James Dobson (sub Jack Waldren, 75 mins), Tom Willment, Shaun Preddie, Spencer McCall, Dylan Cascoe, Mark McLeod (sub David Taylor, 75 mins), Fejiri Okenabirhie, Lewis Driver, Harry Newman (sub Joshua Webb, 82 mins). Unused sub: Brendan Hazlett.

LEATHERHEAD: Louis Wells, Adam Cash, Josh Hare, Nathan Campbell, Steve Watt, Jerry Nnamani, Ryan Mahal (sub Evan Lopes, 75 mins), Paul Semakula, Oluwotomisin Adeloye (sub Phil Walsh, 89 mins), Frannie Collin, Kiernan Hughes-Mason. Unused sub: Alfie Paxman.
Referee: Mr W Cartmel

Att. 163

by Simon Grigor