Hertford 5s 3-2 Blueharts 6s

The tagline of this report makes it sound much more exciting than it actually was! Blueharts clearly knew what was at stake, and did everything in their power to beat us. Tempers flared from multiple Hertford players in the first half with some questionable tackling and several decisions that even Blueharts players kindly overturned on our behalf. They had some very skilful and fast young players who we struggled to keep quiet at times, and their experienced midfielders tore through our centre regularly. Despite this we held firm with some excellent tacking from Kris Pearson and our back line, and eventually scored on the counter. Josh found space in midfield and drove it forward before flinging a long ball forward to Darren, who beat his man and finished from a tight angle on the left. We doubled our lead 4 minutes later, again on the counter. Tom drove in hard from the right and fed Darren at the top of the D, who buried again. Possession continued to be mostly blue for the remainder of the half, as our subs rota went out the window and we lost our shape. Luckily we limped to half way with a clean sheet miraculously intact, thanks to some heroics in goal from the younger Norman.
We took half time to cool our heads and reset our shape, and the second half was a more settled affair. We continued to run hard and worry their backline, but they did the same to us. They equalised 20 minutes into the half, and both sides looked like they could have claimed the win. It looked like it was going to be the home side claiming the points after a penalty flick was given against us for a foot inside the D, despite our young keeper still being behind the shot. Luckily two things happened - Norman ‘silver-tongued’ Sr talked his way out of a green card to remain on the pitch, to then watch the Blueharts centre forward put his flick miles wide to the right. We then almost immediately grabbed the winner in true ‘smash and grab’ manner, with Matt Earle smashing the ball from D to D to find Darren on the left hand side of the goal with a defender and a tight angle to beat. Thankfully he somehow managed both, to complete his hat trick and win the game for Hertford.
A great team performance where we had to dig deep, bite our tongues and get the job done against the toughest opposition we’ve faced this season (who weren’t Bangladeshi). We now sit in 2nd place, 7 points clear of 3rd, with 2 games remaining, guaranteeing us a top 2 finish and promotion into div 5SW. A phenomenal and well deserved achievement from a brilliant team, one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being a part of for the past 3 years.
Next week we face Blueharts 7s at Queenswood, which will be without the skipper who is taking his first game off in 2 years. Let’s enjoy the rest of the season and get good numbers for the dinner dance to round off what has been another very successful campaign!
Josh