| OPPOSITION | Shefford & Sandy 3rd XI |
| VENUE | Home |
| DATE | 09-12-2006 |
| RESULT | Won 4-1 |
In the last league match before the mid-season Christmas break, Potters Bar played a Shefford and Sandy team who were struggling near the bottom of the table. In their changed strip, Bar started well and had Shefford under pressure from the push back.
Despite a number of half chances, Bar were having difficulty making the initial breakthrough. However, Shefford were finding it equally hard to clear the ball from their half. The deadlock was broken 10 minutes into the match when the Shefford goal keeper parried a shot to Andy Latham who, diving over a fellow attacked, touched in his 10th goal of the season.
Shefford were roused into action by this goal and found some space on the right wing. Bar's defense were exposed a couple of times and on the second occasion, a Shefford and Sandy finished from the top of the D to make the score 1-1.
As the game approached half-time, a bizarre incident occurred. As Bar got ready to take a short corner the injector, Chris Edwards, inadvertently touched the ball, making the ball 'in play'. Shefford cleared the ball but the Bar attackers remained motionless, wondering what had happened. Fortunately for them, Richard Atkins dispossessed the Shefford attacker and hit the back into the D. Potters Bar now had men over and after a goal mouth scramble, Andy Latham bundled the ball over the line with his reverse stick for his second goal of the game.
In the second half, Bar were again dominant. Andy Stokes was having his best game for the club and beating players almost at will down the left wing. From one of his runs, he passed to Latham, however a defender got the ball first. As the defender tried to let the ball run out of play, Latham stole the ball and ran towards goal. His pass found Adam Pigden who finished at the second attempt to give Bar a 2 goal cushion.
Shefford then showed some urgency as they tried to get back into the game. They had their best spell of the game, with one or two half chances, but left themselves exposed at the back. Skipper Paul Brady had a great chance but mis-controlled the ball with only the goal keeper to beat. Finally, a long ball to Latham tempted the Shefford keeper into coming out of goal in an attempt to cut out the pass. This proved to be a misjudgement from the otherwise excellent Shefford keeper, who was easily turned by Latham who then had an easy finish into an unattended goal to complete his hat-trick.
The final score was 4-1 to Potters Bar.
Team:
Umpire: Alan Field
Goal scorers:
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| Andy Latham | Andy Latham | Adam Pigden | Andy Latham |