Mens 1st XI v Berkhamsted 2

Braces from Nick Downer and Ben van Rooyen helped Hertford return to winning ways on Saturday with a comfortable four-nil home win over bottom placed Berkhamstead 2nd’s in their last match before the seasonal break.

Van Rooyen was replaced the injured Ciaran Begg and with Mike Hawes also side-lined, Jamie O’Sullivan was called-up at centre-back for his second appearance of the season.

Despite their position in the table it was the visitors who started on top, controlling the midfield, but never really able to threaten in the D, as Ben Tootell – in a man-of-the-match performance at the centre of defence – ably anticipated and muted any threat.

The home side responded, and increased the pace of and accuracy of their play, establishing a tempo that Berkhamstead would struggle to cope with for the rest of the match.

The step-change quickly paid dividends. Work on the training ground was paying off as Hertford’s forwards were leading towards the ball and finding room to manoeuvre in the visitor’s D. One such move saw van Rooyen win a penalty corner, which was finished with aplomb by Downer, slinging the ball high into the net after a neat one-two with Ben Cooper at the top of the circle.

Buoyed by the goal it wasn’t long before Hertford doubled their advantage through another set-piece, again won by van Rooyen’s skilful play, this time also applying the finish himself, sweeping in from the left of the D from another switched routine.

The pressure didn’t let up, with the lead extended to three before the break. Stan Power played a slanted ball into Ian Dunnett from a side-line, who played a scything pass into the D, finding van Rooyen’s run, and although the South African didn’t quite strike his shot on the turn as he intended, it still had enough direction and power to find the bottom corner of the goal.

Unsurprisingly Berkhamstead tightened things up in the second period, limiting Hertford’s more clear-cut chances, but they did find a fourth.

A rare forward foray by O’Sullivan driving in around the back of the away defence won yet another penalty corner, and when Alec Short’s follow-up effort squirmed to the back-post Dunnett flicked a shot on goal, only to be denied by the leg of a defender. Top-scorer Downer calmly converted from the spot for his eighth of the season.

A few further chances went begging late on in the half as Dunnett just failed to latch on to Cooper’s aerial ball that had looked to set him clear, and then neat interplay down the left and a pass across the face of goal by Short was just missed by Dunnett and van Rooyen at the back post.

The win puts Hertford seventh in division three southwest, with their next match away to Stevenage, who sit one point above them in the table, on January 9th next year.

Hertford: Max Capaldi; Elliot Barling, Ben Tootell, Jamie O’Sullivan, Stan Power; Jeremiah Donogue, Alec Short, Nick Downer, Mike Branford; Ben Cooper, Ben van Rooyen. Sub: Ian Dunnett