Hadlow United Vrs Goudhurst United

12th December 2004 (WKSL)

Hadlow welcomed Goudhurst United with Phil Betts for Harvey and the return of Kerton in goal being the only changes to last weeks team. Any thoughts of a repeat of the last two weeks easy wins for Hadlow were dispelled with the first 20 minutes fairly even with few clear cut chances. Hadlow were having the better of the possession but poor final balls and players reluctance to shoot meant the visiting keeper did not have much to do. His first action was a save from Webb (sporting a De Niro taxi driver hair cut!), who squared the rebound to Leach, but with an open goal, missed the ball completely from 6 yards. However Hadlow did not take too long to take the lead, a ball into the box was eventually tucked back by Wood to Excell who clipped the ball over the keeper from 12 yards. Hadlow had a few more chances in the remainder of the half with a few falling to Grundy, one of which was saved by the keeper but the ball fell into Leach's path inside the six yard box with the keeper now out of action, however his shot rebounded 20 yards of the post for Leach's second glaring miss. Taxi for Leach.

Even though the half time score was only 1-0 to Hadlow with their new defensive line up again performing admirably confidence of a win was now high. Walsh intercepted perhaps Goudhurst's best chance late in the first half and he continued to have a great game, in particular Walsh and Bridges' communication was impressive and with the midfield four working hard when not in possession Hadlow have a very solid look about them.

Hadlow had many more chances in the second half though perhaps played less controlled football, bigger gaps were being found in the Goudhurst defence as they tired on the large pitch. Hadlow continued to press and after a decent period of pressure with twenty minutes remaining Grundy scored two goals, one coming from another Wood pass who was having an effective game playing further up the pitch than usual and the other from a misplaced defensive pass that enabled Grundy to round the keeper. It was all Hadlow and this pressure resulted in several corners, with minutes remaining Grundy completed his 3rd hat-trick in his three games when Webb received the ball from Walsh on the right before beating 2 defenders, and squaring for Grundy to score from 2 yards. Grundy will soon need Leach's taxi to carry his collection of match balls.

So Hadlow enter next week's 6 pointer at East Peckham Predators on a run of 10 wins in 11 and conceding only 1 in their last 3 games. However with Cooper being absent for that game the absent Harvey will need to return to his old form after a quiet season so far by his high standards.

Team: Kerton, Walsh, Cooper, M. Betts, Bridges, P. Betts, Excell (1), Leach, Wood, Webb, Grundy (3)

Sub not used: Cook