Hertford V 2 - 2 West Herts VII

Possibly the toughest game we've had since Potters Bar back in November, facing a good blend of fast, gifted youths and robust veterans, we came back from a shaky start to equalise twice and ended the game piling on the pressure for a winner.

The first quarter was mostly West Herts, as they attacked in numbers and we struggled to clear the ball past a midfield ring pushed well up the pitch. They were certainly good for the lead on 10 minutes when we were wrongfooted by a fluffed short corner routine, but Nick had already had to make a couple of saves and we were grateful that they struggled to shoot on target. But we kept our heads up, the strong bench and regular substitutions helped us as we constantly changed our shape and angles, and we finally found some space behind their midfield. Chris Dean shot just wide after some neat approach work from Mark and Andy down the right, and Arjun's constant threat down the left was rewarded on the half hour with a fine strike from wide on the D squeeze inside the far post.

The second half repeated the pattern, West Herts threw numbers forwards and we were penned in our own 23 for long period with little for the forwards to do. We looked to have weathered the storm and were starting to move nicely through midfield, Luke and Tor particularly finding good space and some well timed passing, when they caught us out with a brilliant reverse stick strike after we had again failed to claer from defence. We didn't panic, kept the fas passing game going through midfield and began to dominate. Tor got round the back on the right and crossed for Chris Shattock to strike the second equalised, and in the closing moments we camped in their half and went agonisingly close to a winner. MotM goes to Arjun, not just for a great goal but for non-stop aggression going forward and a rocksteady contribution in defence. But above all this was a team performance with everyone contributing, some great discipline, character under pressure and real hunger to get a result. 4th place is still on!