2 Points Saved and Pride Restored

The Boss was away again this week, leaving the reigns with Nick & Trevor.

But some things stay the same, and due to traffic, the starting 11 on paper was again scrapped and put together a fresh.

Ferris seemingly enjoyed the previous weeks antics and volunteered himself for goal-keeping duties and Darryl, Dwayne, Sam & Jeison returned to action.

TP had drawn against a team in and around the bottom of the table the previous week, so this game had become a must win to close the gap and move up the table.

It had been nearly a year since the last encounter between the 2 teams resulted in an enthalling 4-3 Harmony win after Harmony had gone 3-0 up in the first half. This year Harmony had shown similar capabilities, pushing Camberwell and Enfield all the way in thier encounters.

And their full capabilities were put on show in the first half and their play went predominantly through their striker who was involved in everything Harmony did. TP didn't have (and a times didn't even try to find) an answer. The pre-game rallying cry of "The First 3's" fell on 11 deaf pairs of ears.

And unsurprisingly Harmony went in at half time 1-0 to the good.

The half time team talk was honest and brutal in some cases but was what was needed to try and instill a sharpness that had been significantly lacking.


There was more urgency in the second half, but nothing of note happened until the substitutions came in to play.

Jeison made way after glimmers of the Ginola type shimmy he is clearly capable of with more match practice.
Sam Ranthe - seemingly inspired by Mes and winning nearly everything coming his way- and Dwayne, who was itching to have the chance to skin his full back more than he had done in the first half, made way shortly after for Dan, Frankie & Greg.

But this didn't go immediately to plan, as in seconds of TP making their final two changes Harmony went 2 goals to the good.

But as this league has shown in the past - no game is necessarily over until the final whistle blows. Harmony rolled their dice and took of their main threat, which seemed to spark what was left of any pride that remained in the orange shirts.

The game immediately was based in the Harmony half.

Chance one fell to Calvin when the goalkeeper fumbled a hanging cross, only for the ref to blow for a foul on the goalie.
Chance two fell to Calving when the goalkeeper fumbled a low cross, only for the ref to deem Calvin's challenge (for a ball that was there to be won) dangerous.
Chance three was a lost cause, as Nick had never been able to beat a goalkeeper with a free kick in over 30 games - until now.

1-2 and the game was now there to be taken.

A ball over the top was met by Nick, looping the ball over the stranded goalkeeper only to be denied by the post but met by Calvin, who couldn't get enough of his body behind the bouncing ball to bundle the in an equaliser.

A now panicking Harmony did manage a couple of break aways. One resulted in a tangle of arms between Sam B and a Harmony striker, who theatrically fell to a touch from Sam, winning a free-kick and first ever yellow card for Sam.

A more clinical break away saw Ferris called into action, saving well from a firm drive, only for the ball to fall at a Harmony players feet before being struck against the cross bar and down onto (over?) the line. What is it with Ferris being involved in World Cup- esqe moments?

Ferris was to roll back the years once again and pick up... a back pass! However, the free-kick was squandered and a break through Dan, Greg and Calvin was what was needed to take the play back into the Harmony half.

And the play worked its way back into the Harmony penalty area, where panic again set in and resulted in a ball-winning but rash tackle through Dan Spinola to concede a penalty.

After a long delay by the ref to deal with the normal gamesmanship this type of situation brings, Arsan - who had covered every blade of grass on the pitch - stepped up to bury the ball past the correctly guessing goalkeeper.

With only minutes to play, confidence was high and the game was their for the taking. Calvin was to ensure there would be no more break aways down the TP left (where Jesse was face to chest against the biggest player on the pitch who he had already felled like a tree with a sliding tackle!) but mistimed his tackle to earn a yellow for what the Ref explained to be persistent fouling.


Team:

F. Lindsay,
S. Ranthe (F. Dooknah), Mes, S. Balogun, J. Middleweek;
D. Passfield, A. Aryanpour (1), C. Lindsay, D. Mitchell (G. Perkins);
J. Imhof (D. Spinola), N. Speroni (c) (1);

Blog Writers Man of the Match:

Mes - he never played alongside TP Legend John 'Paul Madeley/KennyBurns' Helm, but his desire to head and clear anything around him - ball or player - is uncanny and equally successful!