Reserve Team Match Report 2011-12 Season

Harpenden Town 5 - 2 New Bradwell St Peter

This was the first league outing for the new look Reserve Team Squad, last year’s squad included a majority of the successful league winning youth team squad but with a number of those players pushing on in to the 1^st

Their opposition for this first game was a new entry in to the league in the form of a Harpenden Reserve Team so little was known about the team other than that they had had a very successful pre-season campaign in which they hadn’t lost a game so it was anticipated that this was going to be a tough opening game and so it turned out.

From the off, Harpenden looked to impose themselves physically on their younger opponents and St Peter’s floundered, unable to get in to their passing game. The first goal came on 5 minutes, pressure on the St Peters box saw the ball cleared to the edge of the area and a well-placed shot beat Sam in goal and gave the home side a 1 – 0 lead. Harpenden continued to apply pressure, but when St Peters did break they looked dangerous and a great run from debutant Adam Moore saw him beat a couple of defenders, the keeper saved his shot but the ball broke to another debutant Ashley Dumbleton and he calmly slotted the ball over the keeper to make it 1 – 1 on 10 minutes. With the rain lashing down now, Harpenden took every opportunity to hit shots at goal from any distance and with one shot looking like it wouldn’t trouble Sam in goal he failed to catch it cleanly looked to have recovered only for the assistant to award the goal for the ball crossing the line and again St Peters were behind. Harpenden continued to press and soon made it three when the defence failed to clear even though it had a couple of chances, but again St Peters showed their resolve and a Jake Griffiths throw saw Mark Hunn pushed in the back and a penalty awarded. Mark stepped up to take the penalty but the keeper guessed the correct way and at half time the score stayed at 3 – 1.

The second half saw St Peters come out in determined fashion and they started to get a foothold in midfield and for the first 15 minutes the game was evenly balanced, James Atherton replaced Jamie Clarkson had a very solid first game and St Peters went to a 4 – 4 – 2 formation which suited them better and looked more balanced. Grady Fryer was played through by Taigon Brookes who was having an inspired game on the left and along with Adam were causing Harpenden lots of trouble on the flanks, Mark and Charlie Fisher started to get more in to the game and it was St Peters who looked more likely to score, however from one such attack, Harpenden won the ball and from the right hand defensive corner, they played a ball over the top and with their striker being played on side, he coolly slotted home to make it 4 – 1. Again the Peters showed the fighting spirit and a great cross from James saw Ashley fire home from around the penalty spot to make it 4 – 2 and game on again. The Peters pressed all they could and a number of chances went begging and it was obvious this wasn’t going to be their day, a fact confirmed when again a long ball wasn’t dealt with and Harpenden scored to make the final score 5 – 2, in terms of quality of play this was harsh on St Peters but in terms of determination and effort, it was a win well deserved by Harpenden.

Man of the match for St Peters went to Taigon Brookes who was outstanding all game with both Adam Moore and Ash Dumbleton deserving mention for fine individual displays.

Next week sees the team with a potentially harder fixture away against pre-season favourites to win the league – London Lions.

Team – Sam Jay, Jake Griffiths (70 Jason Sykes), Nathan Phillips, Rob Humberstone (60 Matt Atherton), Grady Fryer, Taigon Brookes, Charlie Fisher, Mark Hunn, Adam Moore, Jamie Clarkson (55 James Atherton), Ash Dumbleton