Match Report: Old Brentwoods 2 – Old Harrovians 6

Harrow made the long journey to Brentwood on Saturday morning knowing that only a win would guarantee them top spot in the Arthurian League Premier Division at 5pm. With only six games remaining, the team also knew that only a win would leave them still in with a realistic chance of claiming the championship.

The side was nearly at full strength, everyone except ‘keeper Robert Worthy making the trip, although Harry Hoffen had limped out of the Representative game in midweek with a damaged thigh muscle and his state of fitness was unknown.

Harrow started the game brightly, on a pitch that looked better than it actually was – the recent spate of downpours had caused the centre areas especially to become heavy underfoot. Nonetheless, the team asserted themselves well and began spraying the ball around with the consistency they have been doing all season. Piers Bourke wasted the best chance of the opening period, a cross-field ball from the right finding the ginger dynamo with a clear run on goal, but his sights were off and he drilled the ball well wide.

The sight of Harry Hoffen lying on the ground in obvious discomfort was not an encouraging sign, and when it became clear that he could not go on, Jamie Waugh made his customary entrance off the bench with only a quarter of an hour gone.

Harrow continued to force the pace however and two goals in a five minute spell gave the away side the cushion they were after. The opener came out of nothing: a move down the left finding Rupert Hoffen at the near post, from where he turned to fire home from a narrow angle – the shock of the players at seeing the ball hit the back of the net could have been a telling sign, but this reporter won’t hesitate a guess at why that was so. The second goal came from more sustained pressure down the flanks. A corner from the right was fumbled by the Brentwood keeper under pressure from the omni-present Bourke and Quentin Baker bided his time before planting the ball in the top corner.

With Brentwood now on the back foot, Harrow should have seen out the remainder of the half in relative comfort. However, Brentwood did not give up and they had two willing runners up front who began to find considerable gaps in the Harrovian midfield. After several warnings, when long-range efforts troubled the Harrow goal, Brentwood got back the goal their play deserved with a spectacular effort: a fine run and shot which nestled in the far corner, leaving Harper with little chance.

Harrow is never the best at defending single-goal leads. Some would say they are never the best at defending, regardless of the score. But in the second half it quickly became one-way traffic in the right direction, negating the need for any defensive work. Using the width of the pitch to full effect, Harrow began to stretch the Brentwood midfield to its limits and chances began to appear with regularity.

The first of four second-half goals arrived with twenty minutes gone. After failing to convert one Lederman pass in the first half, Bourke made no mistake with a second, racing into the penalty area before firing home unchallenged.

The floodgates then opened and Harrow began to play the kind of football very few teams in the division would have been capable of living with. A Lederman corner was headed home superbly by the unmarked Jamie Waugh, then Lederman himself scored the fifth, latching onto a mistake at the back, he walked round the last couple of defenders and the keeper before stroking the ball into an empty net.

The humiliation was still not complete however, as a thoroughly dispirited Brentwood side began praying for the final whistle. Rupert Hoffen found Lederman on the edge of the box, his chip over the top could have been finished by Quentin Baker, but was eventually headed home by Molloy, who followed up well.

A last minute Brentwood goal was the fault of no-one but the pitch, the ball taking a horrendous bounce past a bemused James Harper.

It had been a triumphant victory for Harrow in their quest for the title, every single player from 1-13 (Rowley Higgs also came on in the second half) played their part in a magnificent performance which left their opponents shattered at the final whistle, chastened by the hiding they had been given.

Harrow (4-4-2):

James Harper; Nick Warner, Tim Dalton, Obi Umneliyora (Rowley Higgs, 65), Charles Tweddle; David Lederman, Quentin Baker, Paul Molloy, Piers Bourke; Rupert Hoffen, Harry Hoffen (Jamie Waugh, 15)