Match Report: February 8^th 2003, Lancing Old Boys 5 – Old Harrovians 6

The day after the night before as it were, with the annual OHAFC Dinner being held on the Friday evening, as ever being well attended by footballers past and present from the school. Lancing led the Premier Division going into this game and had defeated us 3-2 in the Arthur Dunn Cup before Christmas, so revenge was on the menu – after the fayre served up the night before, it was a dish most eagerly anticipated by the Harrovians.

Sadly however, things did not look too good at kick-off time. Team captain Quentin Baker, usually one of the first players to arrive for a game, found all routes to Cobham inexplicably blocked and eventually made it to the ground half an hour late. As Quentin also had the kit, the Harrovian team was left to watch Lancing perform a fervent warm-up routine and then sit in the dressing room, listening in awe as Charlie Feather recounted tales of the Wanderers tour to Barbados a few years earlier.

Strangely, this was to prove less than ideal preparation. Within a minute of kicking off, Lancing had scored – a shot from the edge of the area was rifled into the bottom right-hand corner of James Harper’s goal. Ten minutes later and it was two-nil, the experiment of having the dinner the night before, no warm-up and kicking off half an hour late, at this stage, not seeming one worth repeating. Mr Gerald Lederman, an Old Harrovian season ticket holder for many years (West Stand Upper, fully licensed to moan), was heard to predict Lancing would go on to win 5 – 0. But ‘Fatso’, as he’s affectionately known, was only half right.

The first half, if it hadn’t already, could then have become a coaching video entitled ‘How not to defend’ – Harrow pulled a goal back, Harry Hoffen rifling in a Feather cross. Immediately Lancing replied. Ten minutes before the break Harrow got a second. Immediately Lancing scored their fourth. If Alan Hansen had analysed the game, the term ‘Dia-bor-li-cal’ would undoubtedly have figured repeatedly. But if the first forty-five minutes’ action belonged to Gerry Cottle’s Circus, the second became the property of a Picasso / Michelangelo joint production.

Unbeknown to the Harrovians at the break, Lancing had put so much effort into the first half they were now a spent force. Straight from the restart, Harrow laid siege to the opposition goal and went close on a number of occasions without success. Playing some excellent one and two-touch football, the pressure finally told and Harry Hoffen claimed his second and third goals either side of Lancing’s fifth to make the score 5-4 with fifteen minutes left.

Harrow maintained their relentless efforts, spurred on by the support of the 2^nd XI from the touchline. The best goal of the match arrived with less than ten minutes to go – a Lederman slide-rule pass freed Rupert Hoffen who drilled the ball left-footed through the keeper’s legs from an acute angle (deliberately, according to the scorer – scrawnily, according to most observers present).

By this stage, the Lancing team looked desperate – shorn of their best player (crocked by Paul Molloy – ‘The ‘Arrow ‘Atchet’) they offered little resistance to the continued onslaught on their goal, and the Harrow winner duly arrived a minute from time. Lederman sent a free-kick ‘into the mixer’ and then watched as the pile of bodies ricocheted the ball in a wondrous arc over the Lancing keeper and into the back of the net, the final touch apparently off captain Baker’s head. Cue wild celebrations the length and breadth of the touchline.

A truly remarkable game of football and, if one more cliché about the game could be used, a real testament to the spirit in the Harrovian team: to respond from conceding goals throughout the match and being behind for over 80 of the 90 minutes and yet still emerge with the victory was a great achievement, and one which should give the team huge confidence for the remaining games this season.

Well done boys!

Harrow lineup (4-4-2): James Harper; Charlie Feather, Tim Dalton, Obi Umenyilora, Charlie Tweddle; David Lederman, Paul Molloy, Quentin Baker, Nick Warner; Harry Hoffen, Rupert Hoffen

Sub: Jamie Waugh