Saturday 25th November 2006 Broxbourne Mens 1s v Chelmsford 3s Result - Lost 8-3: Report by A. Law

Broxbourne gained three valuable points to move back into third spot in the league when they defeated bottom of the table West Herts on Saturday.

For the first 20 minutes of the game, Broxbourne struggled to get on top of their basement opponents and West Herts came closest to scoring when a breakaway attack saw one of their forwards strike powerfully but, luckily for the Badgers, the ball just fizzed over the crossbar.

Almost immediately, Broxbourne were galvanised into action and, in the 22nd minute, some good passing led to skipper, Sean Robinson, bearing down on goal, whereupon he dispatched the ball with great power past the West Herts goalkeeper with a sweet reverse stick strike, similar to the type of goal Broxbourne’s Korean import, Tray Lee, was scoring last year..

Broxbourne took control of the first half from this moment on and several chances went begging before more good passing left Paul Dover unmarked in front of goal. Just as he was about to score, Dover was fouled from behind and a penalty stroke was awarded. Rob Dyer, on his 36th birthday, stepped forward to flick the ball home from the penalty spot in the 30th minute.

Broxbourne had opportunities to increase their lead before half-time but some inspired from the West Herts goalkeeper kept the score down to 2-0 at the changeover.

To their credit, West Herts came out in the second half and threw men into attack to attempt to claw back the deficit and they duly converted a goal from a penalty corner in the 43rd minute, despite Andy Law’s valiant effort on the goal line, to make the score 2-1.

A nervy ten minutes saw Broxbourne under some pressure but, with West Herts throwing men forward, the Badgers were always likely to score from a break and this did happen in the 50th minute when Paul Dover finished from close range after the pacy Rob Dyer had nimbly danced his way round the West Herts goalkeeper.

West Herts continued to push men forward but it was Broxbourne who were retaining the ball better and the Badgers should really have extended their lead. However, Dan Hopson was mistakenly sin-binned in the 60th minute after the real perpetrator of the bad foul, Will Fradley, eascaped from punishment, and this rather slowed down Broxbourne's attacking intent. What made it worse was that Fradley showed no remorse in his actions and made no attempt to let the umpires know it was him who made the atrocious foul. Down to ten men Broxbourne were content to see the game peter out take the three points on offer to put themselves in a good position to attack the top two teams, Harleston and Cambridge University.

Broxbourne travel to play Cambridge City next weekend.

Team; Ford(GK), Burrows, Law, Crawley, Evans, Brown, Fradley, Dover, Hopson, Dyer, Robinson, Subs Nearney, Murphy

Events in brief...