WGC IV 1 - 2 Hertford VI

Our 4th consecutive away win!

All the more impressive because we had to work very hard for this one. A bit of a reshuffle with Mark Foster making a welcome return and Chris Dean joining him in midfield as Tor and Chris Duncan returned to front line. We played it the way I like to, keeping a bit deeper and striking on the break. With George and Chris's pace, Tor's stickwork and DPJ's experience we had a cutting edge most Div 9 defences would struggle with, and after a couple of warning shots some neat passing put George through to score tight angle on the near post on the 10 minute mark. Welwyn, who had initially attacked in numbers, pulled players back and we held the midfield quite well till half time, continuing to try the more patient build-up game we had used last week.

Marking was often a bit ragged as Welwyn had a fluid front line with quick players running from deep, but with two of three of our backs playing very deep and the midfield not getting too far forward, we usually had somebody to get a last stick in the way. Nevertheless, we had to rely on Welwyn missing a penalty to take a lead into half time; and despite some scintillating attacking moves, a good short corner stike from Chris Duncan was our only other shot on target.

A good spell of pressure straight after the break saw us thread the ball left to right across their D and a half clearance fell nicely to me to find the corner of the goal from the top of the D. After that the balance of play rather shifted to Welwyn as they pushed their strongest players forward again. Defence began to look deperate at times and we were grateful to Andy Rawlings' (Man of the Match) tireless tackling, as well as three sharp saves from Nicholas and a mercifully toothless Welwyn short corner routine. We still had some neat breaks, working the ball well up the left and Tor running himself to exhaustion, but couldn't grab a third goal. So when Welwyn finally hit the target with a well worked lofted ball to the corner and a pinpoint pass to the top of the D, we had to dig deep for the last 5 to keep the three points.

That result takes us to 8th in the league, denied a top half spot only by goal difference. Can we now at last bring our away form back with us to Hertford (drawn 2, lost 5)? We'll see next Saturday!