Stevenage VI 0 - 0 Hertford V

Our third point away from home this season, our first clean sheet away from home, and a welcome return to the field for Richard Churchill, but against the bottom of the table team, not too much else to get enthusiastic about.

Guests Matt White and Luke gave us plenty of control in the middle and plenty of pace down the right, so we can't blame it on giving 4 or our regulars to the 5s. At the back we had to keep on our toes - we never cope well with Stevenage's 8 - 0 - 2 (or sometimes even 7 - 0 - 3) formation, but we had them in hand for most of the game except for a string of short corners in the final ten minutes, and Nick saved well from the one shot on target they managed.

The first 10 minutes or so we played very well, passing creatively, working the ball round and using both wings, but couldn't force any clear cut chances. From that we slowly went off the boil, the substitutions seemed to unsettle us, and whilst we continued to strike into the opposition D with comfortable regularity, and forced a good half a dozen short corners, we produced very few clear cut chances, just a couple of goalmouth scrambles where the ball just wouldn't land right for us, and a couple of Chris Duncan's crosses that Ian couldn't quite reach on the far post. Stevenage defended deep, and broke when they could into a virtually uncontested midfield, and as time ran down we ran time after time into tackles and blocks.

We always looked at our best on the right, Luke and Chris repeatedly making rapid progress down into the corner and regularly getting the cross in, but the final bite was never there. Perhaps the final positive is that we managed to avoid the sucker punch at the end and at least took away a draw.

Man of the match goes to Matt for his assured playmaker role and pinpoint passing. Nobody really did anything wrong - it just didn't come together and there was no plan B to turn to.

We can do better, next week we will do better!