Potters Bar 3’s – 5, Cheshunt 3’s - 2
Saturday 21st November 2009

So for the second week running driving rain greeted the 3’s for their game against Cheshunt, thankfully another great team performance from the Bar also accompanied the match.

The first 15 minutes of the game can be summarised as: Bar went out too hard, Bar got lost in midfield, Bar went 2 goals down. And so the Bar had a rethink, made a small formation tweak and then some interesting stuff happened...

Cue John Hobbs being moved into the position of holding midfielder and Peter Simmons moved back into the position of left sided central defender, which he was so effective in against St Albans the previous week.

John proved what a versatile player he is, fresh from being a rock solid left back last week to a fantastic performance as a holding midfield this week; he pushed forward when needed, tracked back when required, basically he was all over the place – not sure what they feed the vet boys on but the Cappy is making enquiries and an addition to the half time oranges may be introduced shortly!!

Anyway enough of the Hobbs love-in, back to the game... within a couple of minutes of what shall go down in 3’s folk law as “the Cheshunt tweak” Bar got a goal with James Pearson getting off the mark for the season. After another 5 minutes Bar were level with Alex Seeney putting a shot neatly past the Cheshunt keep. Bar were starting to believe they could win whilst Cheshunt were starting to not believe what was happening.

The Bar’s confidence was now sky-high dominating possession and pushing forward at every opportunity, no more than 5 minutes after getting level Bar were in the lead and it was the turn of another of the ever improving juniors to get their debut goal. Praveen, having got himself into a great position in front of goal smartly chipped in a perfectly placed shot past the keeper. Having gone from 2-0 up to 3-2 down in the space of 15 minutes Cheshunt were somewhat shell shocked and the rest of the half was largely dominated by Bar.

Half time team talk, a summary: more of the same don’t let them get back in the game – it rhymed as well!

At the start of the second half Cheshunt had clearly regrouped and wanted to get something from the game, however Bar were able to soak up the pressure with Jo Dean, Pete Simmons and Dave Brandon doing a fine job at the back with captain Steve also having his moments at right back. Within 10 minutes of the second half Alex got his second to make it four. Declan O’ Leary, who had been working solidly up front as the lone striker interchanging with the equally hard working Adam Pigden, got a much deserved debut goal for the club to make it five.

A sixth goal from youngster Simeon (to add to his debut goal the previous week) was ruled out after the two umpires conferred and then decided that the ball went off just before Declan crossed in for the youngster to push in from short range.

Bar had the majority of possession for the remainder of the second half, though Cheshunt were unlucky not to convert at least one of a couple of shots that they had from just inside the D.

At the other end Bar were equally unlucky not to add of a couple more goals to their final tally of five with James Pearson, Declan and Bradley all coming close. The only slight blot on an otherwise excellent second half performance was the wasting of 5 short corners, which lacked the slickness that the absent Andy Bye normally brings – however this has been duly noted as an area to improve on.

Overall another great team performance with the young side showing lots of character to bounce back from the early set back. The juniors are growing in confidence with each game and the 3’s remain the only unbeaten team in the league.