SHEP ON THE MARK

After the disappointing narrow defeat at home to Biggleswade United the previous Saturday we found ourselves on the road taking a 90 mile round trip to face Essex side Harlow Town at their superb Stadium. Our hosts were formed in 1879 and have an impressive historic background but are newcomers to the Spartan South Midlands League having only joined this season from the Eastern Counties Division 1 South. Certainly the facilities which includes a 3G Pitch are suitable for a much higher standard of football and there was a decent crowd of over 300.

This is only our second encounter against them having lost 2-0 at the Michael Anthony Stadium on 13 September last year. Interestingly only 5 of their players from that day appeared in this game whilst we had 10, which shows just much their squad has changed.

Fortunately Josh Ameganvi’s red card from the Biggleswade game was rescinded enabling him to play against Harlow but we were still missing leading scorer Dylan Whitelock as well as defender Mason Clarke and long term absentee Frankie Hercules.

Our hosts, who are known as the Hawks, started the game 7 places below us in the table and had been on a disappointing run of form but in their last game at home to Baldock Town they won 2-0 and their confidence was noticeable in the positive start they made to this game.

Early on their speedy forward Raheem Gray twice found some space down the right wing whipping over a dangerous cross which was missed by his colleagues and then firing a shot well off target. Then soon afterwards their big centre forward Fred Agyemang got on the end of a cross to the near from George Jessy but his header went just wide.

We had a fairly quiet start to the game but on the half hour mark Max Hercules cut inside to create some space but his shot went just wide. Two minutes later Harry Shepherd latched onto a long throw that was not cleared and although his shot went well wide it was a sign that we were starting to get into gear and it came as no surprise when we opened the scoring soon afterwards in the 36th minute.

The goal stemmed from a Max Hercules corner that was only partially cleared to Harry Shepherd on the edge of the penalty area and in these situations he is just the man for the job as he evaded a tackle and then fired in a fierce shot and although keeper James Pellin got a hand to it he could not keep it out and Shep was able to claim his 9th goal of the season. Score 0-1.

The was no more action of note and we went in at the break with a slim 1 goal lead. HT Score 0-1.

Four minutes into the second half a Dylan Fitzpatrick free kick picked out James Kimber whose header back across goal hit the top of the bar and went behind with Jack Harvey and Luke Peerless lurking hoping the ball would bounce their way.

Two minutes later it as the home sides turn to go close from a free kick with Louie Pullen firing in a well hit effort that went just over. The game then went through a scrappy phase and whilst the home side enjoyed more possession there were few clear scoring opportunities and Josh was hardly called into action.

Just past the hour Blake Argent saw his fine effort saved by James Pullin and although the keeper couldn’t keep hold of the ball we were unable to take advantage of the opportunity. Our hosts thought they had equalised when their skipper Teddy Jones headed in a free kick only to be flagged for offside.

Harlow pushed forward at every opportunity but we defended so well with Kimber and DOC winning header after header with Greg and Dylan also putting in fine performances.

With time up we produced a final good move which gave Harry Jones a shooting opportunity which the home keeper did well to save at the near post. We managed to withstand the final attacks from Harlow to run our narrow winners. Score 0-1.

This was a hard earned 3 points with a super defensive shift put in by all the players to keep a clean sheet. We are still in 8th place in the table and although we are only 5 points off the Play Offs the teams in contention for promotion have games in hand so all we can do is to continue winning games and see where that takes us.

Next week we face 2 more tough games. Firstly on Tuesday we travel to League leaders Winslow United for Gladwish Challenge Trophy (Quarter Final) tie then on Saturday we are at home to Dunstable Town. So plenty to look forward to.

TEAM:

TA: Josh Ameganvi, Greg Deer, James Kimber, Dave O’Connor, Dylan Fitzpatrick, Jack Harvey (Capt), Luke Peerless (Harry Beaumont 76), Blake Argent, Pablo Kalamaras (Harry Jones 58), Harry Shepherd, Max Hercules. Subs not used: Liam Mann, Omar Helmy, Bailey Osborne.

Scorers

TA: Harry Shepherd (36)

Crowd: 304