Hertford Down Ducks in five goal thriller

by Matt Harris

The Blues provided us with arguably the most entertaining game of the season so far and were worthy winners in the end. With dangerous counter attacking from our opponents however, the result could have gone the other way on another day but higher fitness levels meant that Hertford finished the stronger of the two sides (yes you read that correctly).

Aylesbury announced their intentions straight from the kick off with Joey Acheampong trying a speculative shot straight from the kick off. That was charged down but Mr Acheampong, henceforth known as Joey was to form a deadly partnership with our old adversary Melford Simpson throughout the match.

The Blues responded well to the early attacks and mounted several of their own. New signing Kardan Campbell then made his mark with a calm move out of defence that released Chris Bangura down the left and as Bangers floated in a cross cum shot (probably a cross), it swirled in the wind and cleared the despairing lunge of the Ducks’ keeper – 1-0 Hertford.

Aylesbury responded immediately however and just a minute later it was that man Simpson (Simpson eh?), getting on the end of a deep cross from the right and heading it past Robbo. Simpson was injured in the challenge but with a shortage of volunteers to carry the big man off, he soldiered on.

The old Hertford may have buckled but the new guard responded themselves and just six minutes later produced the move of the game. Samir Hadi spread the ball out wide to Bangers who crossed to the near post. Mark Draper dummied leaving player manager Marvin Samuel to prove that he was deadly from two yards out with his first for Hertford.

Bangers then had a chance to kill it off when clean through with the keeper but fired just wide.

The rest of the first half produced end to end stuff but the lack of telling contributions and the early stages of frostbite meant that your correspondent hasn’t recorded them.

Half Time: Hertford Town 2 - 1 Aylesbury United

The first meaningful action of the first half saw Robbo make a brilliant save from a curling Simpson shot that was destined for the bottom right corner.<

A period of even exchanges followed but as Hertford went in search of a goal to kill things off, The Ducks struck back.

As our centre forwards attempted to latch on to a poor goalkeeping clearance, attack was suddenly turned into defence as Aylesbury swept forward. With our own defenders stretched, the ball was smashed past Robbo to bring the scores level.

You felt it could go either way from here and to underline that point, both sides had chances to edge in front. Firstly, as Draper went clean through, Danny Jones rescued the visitors with a brilliant tackle as Drapes was about to pull the trigger.

Then, with the chance of the game, Joey shot over for Aylesbury with the goal gaping. Ironically, the Duck’s number eight would have troubled the migrating overhead geese more than he would our keeper.

Finally, on 81 minutes we sealed the game. The officious official had been handing our more cards than Clintons throughout the game and suddenly gave an indirect free kick in the away penalty area, seemingly for dissent.

The ball was touched to Samir Hadi and as we waited for an uncultured blast into the Ducks’ wall, Samir curled it delightfully over the defence and into the corner.

A tense few minutes followed in which Robbo was called upon on more than one occasion but eventually after lengthy injury time, the whistle brought the curtain down on a really entertaining match that finished with the right result from a Blues point of view.

Full Time: Hertford Town 3 - 2 Aylesbury United

Hertford Line-Up
1. L.Robinson. 2. Packer. 3. Campbell. 4. Sonuga(c). 5. Deng. 6. Hewitt. 7. Hadi. 8. Samuel. 9. Draper. 10. Bangura. 11. Roberts.

Subs Used: Melton (for Bangura) and Mays (for Samuel)

Photos © 2011 Natalina Verta
Please credit photographer if using photos

You can use the arrow keys to flick through photos