Shefford & Sandy IV 1 - 4 Hertford VI

The 6s put their home woes behind them and continued their scintillating away form (well, 2 wins in a row..) up at a wet and windswept Sandy.

All round our best effort so far, and thougfh we were down to our last 11 it was a well balanced side with everyone in a familiar position, and with Tor's ingenuity and George L's electrifying pace up front, backed by Dave Hardings experience at the top of the diamond, we looked like we could score goals for once.

After last week's disastrous start, we kept numbers behind the ball from the beginning. We still rode our luck a bit at the back early on and were grateful for a couple of weak finishes from S&S, but once settled the backs produced a very assured display, well supported by the midfield, drifting effectively and rarely leaving a player unmarked.

After a couple of half chances we went ahead from a short corner. George L's feed went rather wide but was picked up by Andy a couple of yards out of the D, giving room for an easy slip right to Tor who cracked it back towards the left hand post for George to hammer home for his debut goal. Shortly after the break it was the same combination, Tor collecting Steve's long ball from the back, running through from half way and putting George away to beat the keeper.

We then had a flakey patch as Sandy came away with slightly streaky goal (nobody seemed quite sure who had touched the ball in the D), then Andy became our first ever green card, swiftly followed by Dave and Steve (happily not all at once). However, we had the depth of experience to reshape central defence and once we were back up to full strength we saw out the game in style. We finally remembered to give George Fuller some ball and he and Tor caused havoc down the right in the last 20 minutes. However, the goals went to Dave Harding, smart opportunistic strikes set up by Tor (again) and George. His miss in the last minute looked suspiciously like jug avoidance, and persuaded the umpire we had all got wet enough for one day.

Huge team effort again, but man of the match goes to Tor, creating three goals, constant availability to receive the ball all over the park and intelligent distribution. Gold Stars to Dave for keeping Sandy's deep midfield under constant pressure, and then for some inspired finishing at the end; to George L for tireless tracking back and blistering pace going forward - and two finely taked goals; and finally to George F who seemed to find the killer pass or cross every time we got the ball to him.

Let's have a few more like that!!