Potters Bar 4 Letchworth III 2 (HT: 4-0)
Saturday 21st November 2009

Team: E Newbery (Capt), G Smith (GK), O Hughes, V Patel, E Roberts, F Waite, E Kulendra, E Whybrow, M Turpin, M Tomkins, M Edson, M Levy

Scorers: M Tomkins (10), M Turpin (14 and 17), E Whybrow (22)

Umpire: P Simmons

This game was over as a contest within 20 minutes but some resolute defending by Letchworth together with a decided dip in performance by the home side meant that the expected avalanche failed to materialise.

It was immediately apparent to those overhearing the conversation between the umpires that all this week’s Letchworth sides had been weakened by the somewhat bizarre decision of one of their players to organise a skiing holiday for a weekend that clashed with a full league programme! The Bar team welcomed the skilful looking Elvin Kulendra to the ranks and also saw a promotion to the middle of midfield for Ed Roberts as Bar themselves were missing some key players.

The opening minutes looked promising for Bar as they quickly took the game to their opponents. Miles Tomkins had an early shot well saved by the keeper and Mark Turpin then hit the post with Miles unable to follow up on the rebound. It was really no surprise therefore when Bar took the lead - as it turned out, the first of 4 goals in just 12 minutes. Ed Whybrow set up the first two goals – in both cases making effective runs down the right to see his passes put away, first by Miles Tomkins on 10 minutes and soon after by Mark Turpin on 14 minutes. Mark then quickly doubled his tally on 17 minutes, keeping his balance after an attempted trip to slot home.

Not long afterwards the score was 4-0 as Ed Whybrow kept his concentration as more than one Letchworth player stopped playing, thinking that they ought to have been awarded a free hit, to leave Ed free to fire into the roof of the goal from the edge of the D (photo below).

At this point Bar understandably took their foot off the gas but still continued to look likely to score.

Momentum was hampered after 29 minutes when Freddie Waite was the recipient of the first yellow card to be issued against a Bar player for over 2 years. His misdemeanour seemed incredibly trivial (failing to retreat properly after giving away a free hit!) and would see matches with 5 or 6 yellow cards per game if all umpires took similar action. It was later explained however that an earlier green card shown after the same offence by Whybrow was actually against the team, making the yellow a little more understandable (though still not what we are used to at this level). (Ironically Jon Yates was also yellow carded for the 2s later in the afternoon!)

There was definitely frustration with the officiating at the half time interval but the team were told to put that to one side, go out and put on a solid second half performance, and aim to double the score. Early signs were promising as Mark Turpin went close on a number of occasions, either just missing the target or finding the Letchworth keeper in fine form. It came therefore as a complete surprise when Letchworth finally went forward into the Bar half and put together a good move down the right to pull the score back to 4-1 on 44 minutes.

The Bar performance was never really able to lift itself from this point. The odd good move came along but failed to find a finish – Mark Turpin on one occasion only having to tap in an Ed Whybrow through ball but ended up bundling the ball home with his foot! In addition too many players seemed keen to take on too many defenders only to lose possession, when a simpler pass would have been the better option.

Letchworth were still not much of a threat, but from one of their rare attacks they won their only short corner of the game on 59 minutes and worked the ball well to make it two goals from two shots on target!

Bar controlled possession for the rest of the game but were unable to unlock the Letchworth defence to leave skipper Ed Newbery very frustrated with the overall performance….although maybe he’ll be happier when he sees the league table showing another 3 points?

by Anthony Levy

More photos from the game are here - taken by Richard Hughes