Hertford V 4 - 0 Stevenage VI

A return to winning ways, as we learnt (most of) the lessons from last week. Defensively focussed from the start, we gave little away and quickly on top. When the pressure failed top translate into goals, we kept our heads, stuck to our fast moving passing game, and kept possession. We were beginning to get a bit fretful and speculative as half time approached, but the half time talk calmed us down and we upped our game to dominate most of the second half. The goal finally came for Daryl on 45 minutes, and after that we converted pressure into goals at regular intervals, Steve tucking away a penalty flick, Andy Benson hammering the goal of the game from the top of the D in open play, and Chris Duncan adding the 4th.

We still need to work on finding ways past a strong keeper - whether it's over the top or the old golden rule of pulling the ball back from the dead ball line. I will keep banging on about this until we start doing it more. Still too many balls going straight at the keepers pads. But we did enough today, with some excellent approach play, mixing up long and short play and plenty use of the width (interestingly nearly all up the left in the first half, up the right in the second). Chris Duncan's pace gave us an fresh options up front, Tor found space everywhere, Mark, DPJ and Andy Benson took turns to bind things together at the top of the diamond. Rian's switch to wide midfield gave new dimensions to his attacking play. Bolstered again by Daryl's pace and hitting power, the back line coped better than usual with Stevenage's unorthodox attacking approach, and Geoff dealt tidily with the handful of shots they managed.

Too many candidates for man of the match this week, so just two champagne moments. Chris Duncan's first time lofted near post tight angle reverse stick swipe which sadly couldn't get past their keeper's broad chest. Then seeing Rob, Mark and Chris Duncan standing at 25 metre intervals right out on the right hand touch line, and the ball going out square from Daryl and then threading its way to Chris in half a dozen touches.

Let's do the same again next week.