Hertford VII 1 - 3 Rickmansworth III

Two more debutants, and 7 juniors in all helped us field one of our youngest sides so far, and after a tenacious second half fight back we were still hunting a result with 5 minutes left when Rickmansworth added their 3rd.

Losing Daryl on Saturday morning, we pushed Grahame up into midfield, with Joe Hopper and Henry (and later Max) giving the back row a much lower average age than we have seen for many a year. Despite our lack of pace and strength against a robust Ricky side, everyone stuck into their tackles, marking continues to improve, and Lewis, Isaac and Callum all make good space out wide to work the ball up the field.

Ryan played a tireless game at the front of the diamond and opened up the space for Max and Ian to attack, but Ricky had much the better of the first half and a just about deserved a two goal lead despite some stout work from Zak in goal. In the second half our short passing clicked and we began to create some sustained pressure. Ricky got rattled and the chances and short corners started to come or way, though it was a classic breakaway run fron Ian that got us back into the game, the defender kicking off the line after Ian had rounded the keeper. Grahame tucked away the penalty. For a thrilling 10 minutes we looked like we could get back level as Max repeatedly teased their defence, though we needed a couple more reaction saves from Zak at our end to keep us in it. Sadly a well finished Ricky short corner 5 minutes from the end put our first point out of reach.

Max and Ryan share MotM.