Hertford VI 4 - 2 WGC IV

A good win, but played in a disappointingly bad tempered spirit after WGC got on the wrong side of the umpires early on and went downhill from there, collecting 2 yellow cards on the way.

Kash set up Chris Duncan to put us ahead (triggering the first big whinge about the umpiring), a spectacular double save from Nick Izzard from a short corner kept out their first real counterstroke, but despite regular forays into ther D, a handful of shots didn't really test their keeper, and despite being a man down before half time, Welwyn equalised from another well taken short. A further short after the break led to a penalty and we found ourselves chasing the game, but we picked up our workrate and pushed up the backs, Chris Dean got us level mid way through the half and a lightening move up the pitch (John ->me -> Chris Duncan wide right ->Kash, round the keeper, goal) got us back in front. Nick added the 4th from an untidy goalmouth scramble near the end.

Very steady job from the backs, beefed up by Graham's return, and WGC rarely had a shout from open play, threatening only through their short corner routine. Keeping defenders deep was again successful, despite limited support the front line worked hard in the space upfront and varied their moves well. Chris Dean slotted nicely in at the front of the diamond, Aaron and Andrew's contributions continued to develop impressively, but again we looked at our brightest moving the ball quickly down the right.

MotM goes to Chris Duncan, who was involved in nearly all our dangerous moves, run closely by Tony with an almost immaculate shift at right back.

Gripes: Support running was intermittent - it needs to be the whole 70 minutes. Too many passes straight to blue, especially as we broke out of midfield. Vary the crosses, they don't all have to go across the goalmouth.

Tutorial:
First yellow card for deliberately lifting a free hit. A free hit (including 16 yard restarts and sideline hits) cannot be intentionally lifted - though a push, flick or scoop can be lifted. Of course it is hard to judge if an act is intentional or inadvertant, but that is the umpire's call. The offending player had already hit one ball into Kash before the yellow card incident. If the umpire considers a lifted hit to be an accident, it is judged on safety i.e. does it hit anyone or force avoiding action.

'backing in' - moving body first into a marker. This is difficult to judge, especially when a marker is moving, and at our level a lot of players get away with it, or even get free hits for 'obstruction' by the marker. This may explain why WGC were so surprised to have decisions against them.