HOT SHOT FRANKIE GETS US OFF TO A GREAT START TO THE NEW YEAR

Frankie Hercules is certainly on a hot streak of form notching 5 goals in his last 2 League games. Together with brother Max they are dominating our scoring charts with 18 goals between them, with Max just edging it with 10 goals.

Frankie’s brace, which sandwiched a goal from Liam Smyth, secured a tough win over an obdurate Stansted side who trashed us 3-0 back in September at their ground in Essex. They clearly came with a plan to defend in depth and try and catch us out on the break and they nearly succeeded in getting a useful away point.

The visitors started well but the first real scoring opportunity fell to us in the 15th minute when a cross from Max Hercules picked out Jonah Howgego in a prime position but the youngster was unable to put the chance away. Six minutes later Stansted opened the scoring in rather fortunate circumstances when their most impressive player Correy Davidson fired in a well struck shot from just outside the area which ricocheted off one or possibly two players to wrong foot Josh Ameganyi. Score 0-1.

Despite this setback we started to enjoy a lot of possession and territory and we replied with the equaliser on the half hour mark with a Frankie Hercules special, cracking home a free kick from about 25 yards from goal. Score 1-1.

The rest of the half was fairly even with neither side creating much in the way of good chances and we reached half time with no changes to the score line. HT Score 1-1.

Five minutes into the second period we produced a lovely move down the right with Lee Stobbs accurate cross picking out George Carbery whose header forced a great save from the visitor’s keeper. Six minutes later Eli Hearn, who caused the visitors defence a lot of problems down our left wing, went on a terrific run into the area before picking out Frankie Hercules who will wonder how he failed to score.
We were dominating possession but Stansted were proving to be a hard nut to crack whilst we had to be careful not to leave too many gaps at the back. With just over 15 minutes left of normal time we finally cracked open the Stansted defence with a terrific move started by James Sales another member of our very talented U18’s Team who was making his First Team debut. James slipped a pass to Eli Hearn who exchanged passes with Max Hercules and then produced a superb cross that was powerfully headed home by Liam Smyth. It was a goal worthy of winning any game (worth watching on “X”). Score 2-1.

Stansted came back strongly and posed a threat from set pieces. In the 85th minute they nearly snatched an equaliser from a corner when an overhead kick was superbly tipped over by Josh Ameganyi. Josh had virtually been a spectator during the second half so this was a terrific save from him.

We finally put the game to bed in the 90th minute with a goal created by young James Sales who recently turned 17. His long diagonal pass picked out Frankie Hercules who expertly slotted his shot into the far corner. Our guests kept on driving forward but there were no more anxious moments and we ran out deserved winners. FT Score 3-1.

A fine result against a resilient team and especially as we were missing through illness and other reasons the likes of Harrison Cornick, Adam Sawyer, Harry Jones and Guiseppe Delgaudio. We have also lost Josh Chamberlain who has decided to return to Berkhamsted. But on the bright side we did see the return of Dave O’Connor who is such a colossal presence in defence with skipper George Carbery showing his versatility by dropping back into defence alongside DOC. It was also great to see Luke Peerless back in action after a long spell out injured.

Good performances all round but a special mention for Greg Deer for his unsung stint in midfield getting tackles in, clearing the danger, blocking tackles etc. A great 3 points which keeps us in 13th place in the table but only 3 points behind 7th placed Colney Heath with 2 games in hand so if we can keep picking up points we can climb up to a more respectable position.

Team:

TA: Josh Ameganyi, Lee Stobbs, Eli Heran, Dave O’Connor, George Carbery (Capt), Jack Harvey (Liam Smyth 58), Greg Deer, Harry Shepherd (James Sales 67), Max Hercules (Luke Peerless 90), Frankie Hercules, Jonah Howgego (Noah Butler 81).

Scorers:

TA: Frankie Hercules (30, 90), Liam Smyth (74)

S: Correy Davidson (21)

Crowd: 75