Men's 1's Continue Their Winning Run

St Albans M4's 1-3 Hertford M1's

A game with any number of starting points. A brisk November morning: a St Albans return for John Mould; Ollie wearing a t-shirt that didn’t cut off his blood supply; Tom decided that he was so confident he didn’t need to bring shoes. But really this game began on Wednesday night where, after training, sitting in The Lord Haig - the long-awaited text arrived: “Andrew the 1s are desperate, they need you.” A poor showing from the 1s stalwarts and a 2s cancellation later; come Saturday it was a day for the old guard to step up, and the new-look team to show what it means to wear the badge.

After some truly inspiring words from Jamie O’Sullivan, it was time to push back. A dominant first 10 minutes showed some real promise, despite the umpires deciding that we wouldn’t be allowed to play any aerials. Some intricate play from the star-studded midfield with the new kid on the block Will Lobo; everyone’s favourite Brown; and Wonderkid Rob Holman. This paired well with defensive solidity provided by Brothers in Arms Goodson, Branford, and De Roeck – all of whom were willing to put their whole bodies (will come back to that later) on the line for the team.

After this start a breakthrough was inevitable and come it did through a charging break from the midfield, feeding Archie (Akers of space in the D). A goal that was assisted, and closely watched over the line, by Archie’s fellow strike partner to ensure the lead. This goal showed a real pattern of the first half: width at backfiring line cutting balls; intricate midfield play starting and finishing with the pitch-perfect Barling-O’Sullivan duology, and the pure speed strike-force Akers/Durbin/Tootell opening up space in the final quarter. Really, Hertford should have made more from this - but after knocking on the door for a while longer, and despite some pressure from the home team, the second goal came. Scorer turned provider, and Akers fed Brown, who smashed home a rocket to give the visitors a solid lead to take into the break.

Tom’s walk to the half-time team talk was the most he’d had to work so far. The message at the team talk was to keep our bottle and keep our lead. Could the Brave Hertford 13 keep up the energy and drive?

Hertford came out strong, but Tom was called into action more this time around; the game balanced out and, despite best efforts, St Albans finally struck home in a messy move that could have gone anywhere. 2-1. Would it be 2013-14 Liverpool all over again? Would the boys in Red (light blue) let it slip?

Despite the attempted assassination of the former 2s captain (body on the line), by his current captain, Hertford extended the lead to 2 goals once again. Whether Rob got the goal we may never know, most people would say his shot was going well wide, others would say someone stole the goal… Rob would probably say he scored it – who knows who assisted it. Whatever happened: the 2-goal margin was restored, Mouldy decided to play upfront for a bit, and Hertford saw out the Victory.

A day to remember for Hertford, as the 2s bought a bit of their winning ways to the 1s.