The OHAFC 2nd XI’s hopes of collecting enough points from their three remaining fixtures to ensure a top-half finish in Division Three suffered a blow on Saturday when the Blues fell to a 5-0 defeat away to their Chigwellian counterparts in Essex. The visitors spurned two glorious early chances to score, both from leading scorer Andres Hutchinson, but were then undone three times by some neat Chigwell football. The Blues readjusted their formation at the break and competed better in the second half, but a couple of individual defensive errors led to two more goals being conceded and gave the final scoreline a rather one-sided look. The side now face the daunting prospect of ending their campaign with fixtures against the top two sides in the division with the destination of the title still unknown.

This was not a poor performance from the 2s, who had been unfortunate to only secure a 2-2 draw with Chigs when the two sides met on the Hill back in late November, having been the better side for much of the game. Indeed, leading scorer Andy Hutchinson will be kicking himself for spurning his two early chances which could have completely changed the direction of the game had they both gone in. Inside a minute, the forward closed down a hesitant defender, stole the ball, only to blaze his shot high over the bar with just the keeper to beat. Ten minutes later, a flowing move saw Kellock twist away from his man in the middle of the pitch, find Owain James, and he in turn played in Hutchinson, but this time the finish flashed past the near post.

The hosts gradually grew into the game and they took advantage of the rather defensive formation used by the OHAFC, whose three centre-backs were left marking just a single striker, with the two wing-backs – Taunton-Collins and Tristan David – pegged back by the Chigs wingers. This meant the two central Harrow midfielders were outnumbered and the home side were soon picking out men in space. Three times the visitors’ defence was breached, with the first two occasions seeing a forward given the freedom of the pitch inside the Harrow penalty area. With twenty minutes played a well-worked move down the Chigs left saw the ball worked square into the box and the finish was low and true into the bottom corner. Ten minutes later, one of the Chigs central midfielders found himself in the almost identical position, again with far too much time and space. His finish was more reliant on power than placement but keeper Hassan Hammad was still left with little chance of affecting a save.

Then, shortly before the break, a killer third goal arrived. This time the goal arrived on the break, Chigs breaking at pace down their right flank and a one-two allowed the winger space to drill a low shot inside the near post from a tight angle.

Unsurprisingly, with the game now seemingly out of reach, the Blues made a switch to a back four and pushed an extra man into midfield. The change seemed to have the desired effect, with the visitors spending more of the second half inside opposition territory, although chances proved hard to come by.

But as the game entered the final twenty minutes, Chigs’ superior fitness and movement began causing more problems for the visitors and although the two goals that followed were due to entirely avoidable errors, there was no sense they had come against the run of play. A well-worked move saw a low cross from the Chigs right into the six-yard box where Max Curry, perhaps using his midfielder’s brain, tried to control, only for the ball to run a yard away straight to a forward who gleefully fired in from close range. A free-kick ten yards outside the box was then curled around the wall and spilled by the keeper allowing an equally simple finish from a forward who had followed the shot in.

It was hardly a fitting result for several of the side to bring up important appearance milestones, not least Alexi Pittalis, who was playing his 100th game for the club. The League now breaks for Easter before the final 2s games of the season, away to Westminsters in Rotherhithe and at home to the Old Sennockians. Both games are likely to provide tough tests with which to close out the campaign.