West Herts VII 4 - 2 Hertford VI

With only an understrength side of 10 available on Friday, I was not expecting a happy end to the season, but after a plea for help to the 4s I was greatly cheered to be flooded with offers from graduates of the old 4s/5s to dash over from Potters Bar to help us out.

As neither of us has anything to play for, we cut a deal with West Herts and played a match with all the spirit of an end of season festival game. Matt, Arjun, Josh and Luke rotated for us whilst West Herts borrowed a player or two from their 6s, and we enjoyed a close, pacey, high quality game with the big difference being West Herts' short corner drill which brought them 3 of their goals.

With plenty of space we used a good short passing game, marked space effectively, and tried hard to use the whole pitch. Good to see Clive up at the opposition corner flag again, and even Tony having a run in midfield.

Both sides were a bit careless on the final touch, we should have at least been level at half time but saw several goalmouth scrambles cleared off the line when it looked very hard to miss. Two quick goals after half time saw us 3 - 0 adrift, not at all a reflection of play, but a string of good saves from Nick, and one of the line by Clive (who also 'saved' on the West herts goal line) kept us in it whilst our luck finally changed as Adam and Chris converted from short range. But by then a third short corner strike kept West Herts clear.

MotM goes to George this week for constantly hounding any opponent who stayed more than five seconds on the ball in his own half, and setting up most of our opportunities. But this was a team effort again, and above all tremendous fun played in the best spirit of the game.

There will be some concluding thoughts on the season later. Our final position of 9th (out of 14) was fair enough for a new team, and we have continued to draw new faces of old ages into, or back into the sport. Let's see where next season takes us.....