A rare event for a Men’s Bar side this season as they were able to field a 14 (yes, fourteen) man squad full of youth and experience, which meant that confidence was high at the outset as they took on a side 2 places below them in the Div 3SW table.

It was however a sign of things to come when the first chance of the game inside the 3rd minute arose from a Hertford aerial pass out of defence that Bar were not able to deal with and one of Hertford’s nippy forwards ran on to the chance and buried it to give them an early 1-0 lead. Just two minutes later (down to 10 men following a green card for not retreating 5 yards) Hertford nearly doubled their lead when another aerial was not dealt with and this time the shot came back off the post before being cleared to safety.

Bar settled down though and soon levelled things. Flynn Jennings almost equalised on 7 minutes when his shot went wide after he ran on to a long pass from Phil Holbrook. Then a minute later he scored the equaliser – Harrison Law played the ball into the D to Warren Edmondson who saw his shot saved, the ball then ran loose to Flynn Jennings whose initial shot was also saved before he followed up to force the ball home.

Josh Becker had not long entered the fray when he did well to intercept a defensive pass across the D on 14 minutes but despite having plenty of time to get a shot away, he failed to force a save as his shot went wide of the goal. Hertford almost regained the lead 4 minutes later when another aerial pass caused havoc in the Bar defence, but this time goalkeeper Amaan Rashid was quickly off his line to snuff out the danger. He could nothing however on 21 minutes when Bar conceded from a short corner with Phil Holbrook unable to get a connection on his attempted clearance.

Bar once again pushed for an equaliser – some excellent interplay between Flynn and Toby Jennings failed to result in a goal scoring chance but did win a long corner. Soon afterwards Ryan Prygodzicz’s excellent long pass towards the D was missed (expertly dummied?) by Warren Edmondson and the Hertford goalkeeper then did just enough rushing out of his goal to deny Toby Jennings. They still had to be careful at the other end though – Amaan Rashid was forced into a series of saves 2 minutes before the end of the half, while Hertford nearly extended their lead a minute later when yet another aerial pass got into the D before the ball was hit over the bar.

Skipper Warren Edmondson and Jack Goodwin were both positive at half time, stressing the need to close down the opposition and also to be swifter with the passing and to be wary of those aerial passes – good to see that the first action of the second half saw Chris Chittleborough take out an early aerial to get Bar back on attack. Meanwhile Thomas Afford, who had been struggling with injury int eh first half came off for good on 38 minutes – sensibly protecting himself for another day when the team had enough reserves.

Bar continued to push for an equaliser and Warren Edmondson came close on 39 minutes when his reverse strike, following an excellent pass from Jack Goodwin, was well saved by the Hertford keeper. Unfortunately, it was Hertford who got the next goal, taking a 3-1 lead after 43 minutes at the second attempt after an initial save close in by Amaan Rashid. However, the 2-goal lead lasted barely 2 minutes when once again the brothers Jennings put together some neat passes on the right before Flynn unleashed a fine finish into the corner of the goal that gave the Hertford keeper no chance.

The game was very much in the balance at this stage with Bar forcing the game. Flynn Jennings soon had two more chances – shooting wide on 47 minutes after being set up by Jack Goodwin and then a minute later not quite able to properly control the ball close in following a pass from Toby Jennings. Soon afterwards Warren Edmondson hit the ball wide of the goal after good work from Alex Vernon.

An exciting finish however was ended when Hertford scored 3 goals in 8 minutes – on 52 minutes they won a short corner in the aftermath of an Amaan Rashid save and the corner was despatched in much the same way as their second goal. Two minutes later (apologies if you think you have read this already!) an aerial bounced up in the Bar D and was belted into the top of the goal. Then on 60 minutes another good Hertford move was neatly finished to turn what had until a few minutes earlier been a close match into a 2-6 rout.

Bar were now short of confidence and were unable to create any more chances. Hertford in fact could have extended their lead but wasted two more short corner opportunities before another fine save from Amaan Rashid with 5 minutes remaining kept the goal conceded tally from getting any worse.

A disappointing end to what had been an entertaining and mostly close encounter – Bar will need to get themselves up for next week’s game, which figures to be a tricky visit to paly Hertford 2s.

Potters Bar 2s 2 Hertford 3s 6 (HT: 1-2)

Team: W Edmondson (Capt), A Rashid (GK), H Law, S Ward, P Holbrook, C Chittleborough, J Brown, A Vernon, T Afford, R Prygodzicz, J Goodwin, F Jennings, T Jennings, J Becker

Goals: Flynn Jennings (8 and 45)