Match Report by Dan Sinclair

I wouldn't usually make a trip to Dunstable on a Tuesday night unless it was a special occasion and it just happened to be. The last time we came to Creasey Park was 11th September 2010, so just over a year ago, the ground then was in the midst of extensive renovation and there was s**t everywhere. Turning up this time, I ended up parking where the old clubhouse used to be and went searching around for the entrance to the ground, which had moved to the other side. Anyway that's not the special occasion. It was going to be the last time of doing the Twitter report now that Jet Lag Nev is back from down under, although i'm gonna put up a bloody good fight to keep it for Saturday!

After the projectile H-Bomb of chairman Mike Varney chucking in the towel, we faced a very dangerous "precursor" against in-form Dunstable Town who had beaten big boys Royston on Saturday. At the back of our minds we probably knew we weren't going to win, even if all that stuff hadn't of happened last week, so we just closed our eyes and hoped for the best.

We were doing well attacking the training ground "super mound" end until 7 minutes in... A common problem with the Blues - the opposition gets through on the wings, puts in a cross, no one marking the run, tap in, 1-0 to Dunstable. Raucous neanderthal's then start making lots of grunts behind Robbo's goal, we've gotta give them credit as they only learned to walk upright that morning.

I'll skip the almost suicide from our kick off... what you do need to know is that Hertford, our boys, started attacking Dunstable and it was going well. Chet Johnson danced with the ball, Niall Robinson pirouetted around a blobby defender then our defence committed seppuku (Hara-kiri if you prefer). Robbo did something I got told off at primary school for, kicking across the goal from a goal kick. I think it was a miss kick after hearing the groan. A startled Michael Cooper tried in vain to control the awkward ball but it was too late, a Dunstable forward kicked it in from about 40 maybe even 50 yards.

8 minutes later it was 3-0. Im really not sure what to say. A Dunstable player called Dan Hutchins seemed to run with the ball from his own half, all the way to the edge of our area and crack a shot into the bottom right corner. Why did we let him do that?

It all got a bit too much Ryan Gordon and the caretaker duo of Rhys Tom and John Barker decided to sub him for fresh faced Ryan Wade. For a moment it was good... within 3 minutes Chet Johnson won a free kick, which was curled in and Mark Draper slide the ball home. A ray of light....

...soon to be covered by a black cloud of Micky Nathan. I really don't know what the thinking was but Micky played a ball back to Robbo and didn't put anything on the pass. Of course the Dunstable forwards were like predators, pounced on the ball and booted in the back of the net, Robbo didn't stand a chance.

Half Time: Dunstable Town 4 - 1 Hertford Town

As I said in my Twitter report, "if we stay in Dunstable's half we'll be fine!". The lads came out and took the match to Dunstable. We won numerous free kicks, the ref was taken out by the ball and set us up for a chance. A moment of bad officiating saw our players all going mental at the referee. We had a free kick, the shot clearly hit the wall and flew over for a corner but a goal kick was given, how it was given, we will never know.

We had our pants in our mouth on 55 minutes when The Blues were nearly punished at the back (ok we had already been punished in the first half, this is different). A cross came in... you guessed it... unmarked header... Robbo super save!

That was a small blip of the second half, the second being Dunstable's late goal - i won't say much on that as it was inconsequential. All you need to know is that we were all over the ball like a fat girl with cake and created chance after chance. Admittedly we do need to work on our finishing.

Ryan Wade had two good opportunities to score, on both occasions being one on one with the keeper but Dunstable seemed to have lady luck on their side or some kind of nerdy force field.

We huffed and we puffed then Dunstable blew our house down with the killer goal on 89 minutes. It didn't matter to us fans by that point, our lads had given it an excellent go to get back and we couldn't fault them. Please please please no more mistakes lads!

There was a moment of madness towards the end... our old boy John Staines told Michael Persighetti to f-off and hilarity ensued. By the time full time arrived everyone seemed in a good mood apart from Chet Johnson who was sent off for a second yellow card and had to be pulled away by Rhys and John.

Since the results that night, Dunstable Town are now the only unbeaten team in the league

Full Time: Dunstable Town 5 - 1 Hertford Town

Hertford Line-Up
1. L.Robinson. 2. Cooper 3. Gordon. 4. Evans. 5. Nathan. 6. Maybury(c). 7. McArdle. 8. Johnson. 9. N.Robinson. 10. Draper. 11. Roberts.

Subs Used: R.Wade (for Gordon 36mins), Casey (for McArdle 55mins) & Crowhurst (for Evans 69mins)

Photos © 2011 Natalina Verta
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