Old Citizens 1st XI
1 : 6
Old Harrovians 2nd XI
  • February 24th 2018, City of London School, 12pm
  • Junior League Cup
  • Referee: Terry Turner
  • Weather: Sunny, windy
  • Pitch: Excellent
No. Starting XI Goals Yellow & Red Cards Subs On/Off
1 Emre Sert
2 Harry Woolley 70'
3 Alexi Pittalis
4 Tom Ward 42'
5 Edmund Massey 65'
6 Geoff Taunton-Collins (c) 75'
7 Ollie Curry
8 Pablo Hutchinson 5' 60'
9 Doug Morrison 75'
10 Max Curry 85'
11 Freddie Brunt 80'
Substitutes
12 Gbeminiyi Soyinka 75' 30'
13 Josh Adejokun 50', 65', 85' 30'

The OH 2s enjoyed a resounding win away at Citizens on Saturday to book their second JLC semi-final berth in three years. On a particularly windy day in South East London, the team produced a battling performance, with the final scoreline masking a match which for two thirds was very much in the balance.

Conversation on the long drive south focused on the OH’s chequered recent history in this away fixture. Recent outings at Citizens made for tough reading - a 6-1 defeat in 2014 was followed by an 8-3 defeat in 2015, with even last season’s 2-1 victory tasting bittersweet (costing the team, as it did, the Div 3 title by two goals).

Preparation in the dressing rooms was meticulous, with bananas, cinnamon swirls and wine gums (the product of a successful and carefully considered skirmish to the local off license by Edmund Massey) providing the perfect fuel for a long afternoon ahead - the team focused on prolonging their cup run for one weekend more.

The team, despite the notable absences of regulars David Lederman and Jack Alhadeff, lined up strongly, with the familiar core of the Curry brothers backed up by returns from Pablo Hutchinson, Alexi Pittalis and Tom Ward.

For the third time in as many games, Harrow started strongly – their application in warm up translating immediately onto the pitch as, with the wind strongly at their backs, they camped firmly in the Citizens half. From the first corner of the game an unseemly quartet of headers – all Harrow’s – ended with the ball in the Citizens net. Max Curry rose highest to divert a flighted ball in goalwards, Pablo Hutchinson glanced the ball onto the crossbar, Tom Ward headed the rebound onto the crossbar once again, with Hutchinson, at long last, burying the second rebound into the back of the net.

The strength of the wind, coming as it did directly down the pitch in Harrow’s favour, saw the majority of the half spent in Citizens territory. However, there remained a sense that for Harrow to really consider themselves in the ascendency a two goal cushion was paramount.

Buoyed by the early strike Harrow looked lively on the ball, though Citizens found some luck with the occasional breakout, looking particularly menacing down their left hand side. For all of Harrow’s territory a lack of composure underpinned much of Harrow’s attack, with the Citizen’s keeper largely untested by a series of long shots and over-hit final passes as the half ticked on.

Approaching the end of the half disaster struck, as after a period of prolonged possession Citizens clawed a goal back in controversial fashion. An open and shut offside call was unfathomably dismissed by the referee, and as the Harrovian defence ambled back – some of them already static in anticipation of the restart – the right winger pinned his ears back. Despite the oversight from the referee, there was no doubting the calibre of the eventual finish, with a pass square to the citizens attacking midfielder resulting in a powerful finish from the edge of the area – beyond a diving Emre Sert, and into the top right corner.

It was an excellent strike, but the sense of injustice lingered momentarily in the London breeze, and Harrow lost their composure for the next few minutes – resulting in an eventual booking for Oli Curry for dissent. Citizen heads were up, and the thought of heading into half time with only parity to show for Harrow’s dominance caused an immediate shift in momentum, with Citizens looking dangerous with every attack, and Harrow struggling to spend any time on the ball.

Almost immediately, however, Harrow were gifted their second goal. A pass from Woolley to Ward on the half-way line looked innocuous enough, as did the defender’s over hit long ball into the box. The citizens keeper, however, failed to judge the flight of the ball, distorted no doubt by the wind, and fumbled an uncontested catch horribly into his own net.

The 2-1 lead was thus gifted to the away side, but there remained the sense as the halftime whistle blew that a one goal cushion would be found out in the face of the second half wind. A rallying cry was issued by captain Taunton-Collins to maintain the intensity in the second half, and to be savvy in the face of Mother Nature.

The frontline duo of Gbeminiyi Soyinkaand Josh Adejokun began the second half strongly, forming an encouraging partnership and demonstrating an attacking threat which the Citizens clearly struggled with. Not long into the second half a breakout from the back found Freddie Brunt down the left hand side. His early ball into the box ricocheted off a stretching Citizens shin, with Adejokun’s fine finish beating the Citizen’s second keeper of the match to his right (their first having disappeared almost immediately post-gaffe).

This unanticipated advancement to a two-goal cushion seemed to crush, quite prematurely, the Citizens’s spirit. The duo of Max and Oli Curry found some supremacy in midfield, Doug Morrison started to find some joy on his wing, while Pittalis and Ward started to demonstrate some fine composure in passing the ball out from the back.

At the 60 minute mark, a terminal blow befell the beleaguered home team, with their standout left winger pulling up with a popped hamstring (to the relief of Woolley, who had marshalled him well, and the satisfaction of Oli Curry, who had enjoyed an ongoing battle of wits with the player throughout the match). With Citizens shorn of any subs, the player eventually found himself settled in the team as their third (and marginally least mobile) keeper of the afternoon.

Citizens heads at this point dropped significantly, with Adejokun’s second goal putting the seal on the result, if not the scoreline. Picking the ball up on halfway, Adejokun was afforded space by Soyinka’s jinking support run, with the defence backing off sufficiently to allow him to advance on goal and place the ball calmly beyond the static makeshift keeper.

The atmosphere was at this point one more associated with a testimonial match than the traditional furnace of the JLC, and for once in this season of razor-thin margins the OH’s enjoyed a relative amble into the final 15 minutes of the match, with thoughts perhaps more focused on potential PLT points than fighting off a potential Citizens comeback.

Soyinka duly got the goal his performance merited – Josh providing the assist – though his glory was blunted somewhat soon after when he somehow managed to avoid scoring when one on one with the immobile keeper. The laughs this uncharacteristic miss mustered on the pitch shone a light on the foregone nature of the result, with no rousing comeback likely, and it fell to Pittalis to give the game one last moment of quality. His fine, mazy run down the left hand side had left several Citizens defenders in its wake by the time he unselfishly offloaded to Adejokun to complete his hat-trick.

The whistle blew not long after, any demons of past thrashings successfully exorcised by the most unlikely nature of this win – a marker perhaps of how far the team has come since its struggles at this ground in the past two seasons – and a fine afternoon’s work was made that much sweeter as news filtered in of two league results going the way of Taunton-Collin’s men.

Thoughts now return to the team’s precarious league predicament, knowing that a win against Radley this coming weekend will be very welcome indeed, and would aid the side in earning another season in Division Two.