Match Report: November 13th 2004: Old Reptonians 2 – 5 Old Harrovians
After
a two-week break, the Old Harrovians returned to action hungry to put further
space between themselves and their nearest challengers at the top of the Arthurian
League. Repton were the opponents and despite their poor record of one win from
their first five games, complacency was dismissed from the visitors minds the
moment news of their 6-1 win over Lancing the previous
week was divulged. Repton now had their full-strength team available and this
would be no walk in the park.
For
Harrow, there was one change from the side that lined up against Forest two weeks previously: Paul Molloy failed to
recover in time from strained knee ligaments sustained in the representative
match and his place in central midfield was taken by Jamie Waugh, with Charlie
Tweddle returning to his left-back slot.
Some
truly dreadful directions to the ground, at Merchant Taylor’s School, saw
several members of the side arrive later than desired, but they were placated
on arrival by what appeared to be an early Christmas sale on extra-large
doormats outside the changing rooms.
Harrow began the match well, the team’s
high tempo causing the opposition to panic when they had the ball and
consequently it was the visitors who enjoyed the bulk of the early possession.
Several forays down the right hand side allowed full-back Nick Warner to
achieve excellent crossing positions, but sadly the initial quality of the
service into the box was poor: too many times balls were played to the edge of
the box when the two strikers had gone to the near post and vice versa. It was
also frustrating to see both Hoffens make the same runs into the box on more
than one occasion, when splitting their paths may well have produced a chance.
However,
with Repton offering little except long balls into the corners, Harrow was well-placed to open the scoring and this they
managed after little over a quarter of an hour. A break down the right saw
winger David Lederman running at the technically-sound but slow Repton
left-back. Beating his man with ease, Lederman then had two strikes on goal but
saw both efforts well-saved by the stand-in goalkeeper, before the ball then
fell to Harry Hoffen. Harry appeared to make no mistake as he fired into the
far corner, but just as he was about to wheel away in celebration of his
seventh goal of the season, up popped goal-scorer extraordinaire, Piers Bourke,
to slam the ball home from a few inches out – his third goal of the season, all
of which have been scored from a yard or less out. No need for shooting
practice for you Piers…
If
the goal was the cue for the floodgates to open, the visitors, in time-honoured
fashion, had failed to read the script… Barely two minutes had elapsed when
Repton grabbed a well-worked equaliser. The build-up began down the left and
when the Harrow midfield had failed to stop
the advance of yellow shirts, spaces began to appear. The ball was switched to
the right, from where a low cross was delivered into the box that was
beautifully finished on the half-turn by one of the Reptonian strikers. It was
back to square one for Harrow.
The
last twenty minutes of the first half were almost an action replay of the first
twenty: superior Harrow possession that lacked
any real penetration when it neared the opposition penalty area opposed by
Repton’s long diagonal balls over the full-backs which appeared hopeful rather
than inspired. There were even two more goals shared between the sides and
again they came in quick succession. Harrow
regained the lead when a Lederman corner was palmed straight up in the air by
the struggling goalkeeper, only for Jamie Waugh to launch himself at the ball
with a prodigious leap and head home from a yard out. But this was again
quickly matched by another Repton sortie down their right: Rich Brownlee used
his electrifying pace to outrun Charlie Tweddle on the outside before firing
past Worthy from close range.
Harrow hearts were filled with
frustration at the break as they tried to figure out how they had only managed
to end the half on level terms. However there was also huge determination to up
the tempo and secure another vital three points. A change of goalkeeper by the
home side could have been some kind of mysterious tactic used to upset the
visitor’s rhythm, but if so, it failed to do the job: Harrow
produced an excellent forty-five minutes of football to settle the contest in their favour.
After
a number of chances had gone begging, Harrow took
the lead for the third time in the match a little over ten minutes into the
second half. Excellent work down the left by Piers Bourke and Rupert Hoffen combined to set up David Lederman at the far post and the winger made
no mistake, firing home into the far corner as the defence closed on him.
Harry
Hoffen then sentenced the game with two super strikes in the final quarter of
the game. In the 68th minute he turned on the edge of the box,
almost sending his marker into the adjoining road, before finally discovering
his left foot does actually function and firing the ball low past the
wrong-footed goalkeeper. Less than ten minutes later and a long ball over the
top saw him outpace the Repton defence and, having rounded the ‘keeper, produce
an exquisite finish from a tight angle that saw the ball creep in despite the
attentions of a covering defender. Although he wasn’t to know it at the time,
Harry’s second goal sparked a number of interesting incidents that greatly
enlivened the remainder of the contest.
First,
the Repton striker’s annoyance that Harry should apparently be wasting time by
staying down injured after scoring (even though the score was now 5-2)
manifested itself in a number of pseudo-witty remarks. These began with the
harmless enough ‘Anybody got a stretcher?’, progressed
to the somewhat tiresome ‘Somebody call an ambulance’, before ending with the
frankly labouring ‘Who’s got a mobile phone?’ Lederman’s patented ‘desert wind
and deserted church bells’ noise was put to excellent use…
Then,
it was the turn of the Harrow goalscorer to
brighten up everybody’s afternoon. Going down under a perfectly reasonable
challenge on the touchline, Harry responded with a vigorous rendition of ‘NO
AFTERS, NO AFTERS’ to the amazement (and amusement) of all present. Quite what
caused this extraordinary display of passion was still being debated long after
the final whistle had gone, although needless to say in the pub later nobody
was left in any doubt as to whether or not pudding was on the cards: ‘NO AFTERS,
NO AFTERS.’
Back
to on-the-pitch matters and Harrow missed the chance to grab a sixth when something
quite remarkable occurred: a Lederman missed penalty. The winger’s inch-perfect
through-ball had set Piers Bourke racing through the middle, only for him to be
hauled down by the last defender right on the edge of the box. Despite firing
low to the ‘keeper’s left, the erstwhile centre-half produced an excellent
save, palming the ball to safety. The look of amazement on everyone’s face said
it all…
Harrow saw out the rest of the match in
relative comfort and could even have increased the margin of victory had they
not squandered further opportunities. But the victory was clear enough and the
three points won strengthened Harrow’s grip at
the top of the table. Next up…Charterhouse at home on Saturday.
Harrow (4-4-2): Bert Worthy; Nick Warner,
Tim Dalton, Rowley Higgs, Charlie
Tweddle; David Lederman, Quentin Baker, Jamie Waugh, Piers Bourke; Harry
Hoffen, Rupert Hoffen
Goalscorers: Piers Bourke (18), Jamie
Waugh (33), David Lederman (55), Harry Hoffen (68, 75)
Magnifico: Jamie Waugh
Muy Bueno: David Lederman
Bueno: Quentin Baker
Vaya Dia! Nick Warner (who was not as good as usual);
The author of the directions to the ground (which were truly awful).
Leading Goalscorers
2004/5 (after 9 league games):
8 Harry Hoffen
6 Rupert Hoffen
4 Paul Molloy
Quentin Baker
3 David Lederman
Piers Bourke
2 Jamie Waugh
1 Nick Warner
Freddy Brunt