Potters Bar 4 Hertford II 1
Saturday 24th October 2009

Team: E Newbery (Capt), A Linney (GK), B Graham, V Patel, O Hughes, F Waite, E Ogbourne, T Sayers, M Tomkins, M Edson, E Whybrow, C Chittleborough, M Levy

Scorers: C Chittleborough, M Tomkins (2), E Whybrow

Umpire: J Yates

A slightly weakened Bar outfit took to the field in drizzly rain at DAOS to look after their 100% record in the league this season. The absence of injured leading scorer Mark Turpin and other availability problems meant another opportunity for young Michael Levy as well as a promotion for Ed Ogbourne.

Bar opened confidently but found themselves a goal behind after just 3 minutes. Some sloppy play near the half way line led to a 4 on 1 break where despite an initial intervention by keeper Andy Linney, there were too many Hertford players on hand to finish things off.

This early setback led to almost 20 minutes of non stop pressure by Bar, with the imperious Ed Whybrow usually involved in pulling the strings. After 8 minutes the equaliser came as Michael Levy found Chris Chittleborough on the edge of the D and he fired home through the keeper’s legs. A number of opportunities came and went with the ever lively Tony Sayers always in the thick of things usually finding the keeper or a defender on the line in his way.

The continued pressure soon brought its reward on 23 minutes as Miles Tomkins robbed a defender on the left hand side and he raced across to the right hand side of the D before firing back across goal into the corner to make it 2-1. However for the remainder of the half Bar seemed to lose their way with too many wayward long passes lifting the pressure and a last minute mistake nearly letting in Hertford for an equaliser just before half time.

The half time team talk (still no oranges?) encouraged the side to get back to their good passing ways and to show why they are top of the league. Early second half signs were not that good however as despite being on top, Bar failed to create any clear cut chances and always had to be wary of Hertford on the break. Special mention must be made of Hertford’s young number 33 who showed ability way beyond his very young years – I do hope he’s already in the County team!

Eventually the nerves were settled by two goals in three minutes half way through the half. First Ed Whybrow crashed home a tremendous reverse stick effort from the edge of the D on 54 minutes (sorry skipper, I had to say it was good!) and then on 57 minutes another Ed Whybrow run ended somewhat fortuitously, as having failed to pick out Michael Levy more than once on the right, his final effort came back to him to pick out Miles Tomkins for a simple tap in and his second goal of the game.

There were further efforts on goal with the Bar play being reminiscent of Arsenal in there being lots of good approach play but without the killer finish. Tony Sayers again came close with the keeper making one very good diving save to prevent Bar making it 5. Meanwhile at the other end Hertford also went close in the dying minutes with Andy Linney kept busy in making his own saves to keep the score at 4-1.

In the end the feeling was that this was probably the worst display of the season so far that had brought an ugly win – nevertheless it was still a pretty comfortable victory that made it 5 wins out of 5.

by Anthony Levy