We went into the first league game of the season in good form from a productive pre-season programme very much looking forward to the challenge that Div 2 S had in store for us.

We pressed hard in the first 10 minutes and had the lions share of possession but an unfortunate slip up at the back left their centre forward with a simple tap in putting us 1 down early on. We continued to play the way we were and the pressure we exerted on West Herts soon paid off with us being able to intercept a pass from their centre back and some neat interplay between Nick Downer and Ian Dunnet got the ball to Mike Branford at the back post who calmly slipped the ball under the on rushing keeper to bring us level.

We continued to play well and press them into making mistakes which led to us having opportunites that we couldnt convert.

West Herts took the lead from a short corner strike that rose and then dipped to just hit the back board leaving goalkeeper Ian Pledger and post man Stan Power with little opportunity to keep it out.

We went into the break 2-1 down but happy with the way we were playing. We knew if we kept it up we could get something from the game.

West Herts then scored 2 goals in fairly quick succession as with two breakaway goals taking a commanding lead of 4-1 making the most of us being down to 10 men for 5 minutes. We didn't drop our heads but continued to press and won a short corner which was well converted by Joel Forrester into the top corner. With 10 minutes to go we knew we had a chance.

Unfortunately a couple of missed chances in the D meant we couldnt scrape a draw but an admirable effort from the lads and a positive start to the season even though we didnt take any points from this game