Luton Town IV 1 - 3 Hertford VI

Luton Town IV 1 - 3 Hertford VI

One of our best performances to date. With Clive injured and Andy Smith called away with a family illness, Jared Ford stepped up at short notice to keep for us. As Luton also had their 2nd XI keeper doubling up for them, goals were always going to be hard earned. With a good but rather unbalanced squad (it’s not often I’m short of defenders) the subs rota wasn’t as smooth as usual, so apologies to Adam, Aaron and Ewan for the limited pitch time, and thanks to Aaron for putting in good shift out of position in the back line and to Aodhan for covering right back, right mid and the back of the diamond with consistent poise and control.

We had to absorb some pressure in the first quarter and Jared had plenty to do. We had some good moves ourselves and forced a couple of good saves, but it was no surprise when Luton took the lead on 20 minutes. The vital moment came shortly after as Graham cleared brilliantly off the line as a short corner shot headed for the corner of the goal. It would have been a long way back from 2 – 0 . As it was, we continued to work our way forward, finding good space and using square and back balls effectively, and by half time we were still in touch.

I must have said something good at half time as we stepped up the pace up front and began to take control of the game. Kash, Ian, Tom and Chris struck repeatedly into their 23, we kept up long periods of pressure and kept patient. It was Graham again who unlocked the door, drifting unnoticed wide right to receive a long corner ball from Dave, and slamming in the cross for Ian to strike home. The pressure continued, Ewan and Chris resumed their effective partnership down the right, Dave, Steve and I pinned Luton firmly back in their own half, and the goals kept coming. Chris finished off a neat string of passed through the D to give us the lead, and with a quarter hour to go neatly deflected Ian’s ball down the middle wide of the keeper’s pads.

We had a rough last ten minutes as St Albans threw the kitchen sink at us, but we managed to scramble everything away and claim our first away win of the campaign.

I was impressed with everyone’s readiness to run themselves to exhaustion, especially Kash and Dave, and the calling, running off the ball and precise distribution as we grew in confidence.

Jared gets man of the match, for several good saves and his commanding presence in the D, and all the front line deserve plaudits, but above all this was a great team performance. Letchworth next week, three wins from three so far – let’s see if we can put that right!