retired_destiny1124

17.10.07
Another piece of good news as we finalized a contract with Neil McCafferty and he will be joining us in early November after his loan to Notts County expires. McCafferty cost us 20K from Charlton and though not quite as talented as Pratley, does bring us another quality midfielder. He is a good tackler and can pass and create chances- something that will benefit us. McCafferty is a 23 year old Irish AMC and will likely start in the right side of our midfield. He has been loaned out for the past several seasons and is pleased to be coming to us where he wants to establish a starting role and some stability.

***

20.10.07
Scunthorpe (0) Harrow Hill (2)
The addition of Darren Pratley really seems to have rounded out our club. With the trio of Pratley, Richard Langley and Dean Morgan playing well- our offense is really on the go. In our showdown match with 1st place Scunthorpe, we exploited the midfield space in their 424 lineup. Our backline consistently took the ball away and moved it quickly and that created a lot of space for our offense to flow into. Pratley found space and made it pay off when he whipped a 20 yard blast inside the right post past Michael Peacock to give us the lead early in the first half. We came close to adding to the lead, but Peacock blocked away a sizzling shot from Morgan late in the half. Scunthorpe was having problems getting close-in shots and missed high over the net several times from just beyond the edge of the area. Ross Flitney took full advantage of knowing Morgan's pace and ability to find the right spot as he lofted a goal kick over the Scunthrorpe backline and put Morgan in free. Peacock came out to try and grab the ball, but Morgan was there first and took the ball around the diving keeper before easily slipping it into the open net to make it 2-0 in the second half. Our backline made several excellent saving tackles as the home side desperately tried to rally. When the final whistle blew, Flitney still had his clean sheet and we had notched a huge 2-0 road win over the heavily favored Scunthorpe.

retired_destiny1124

23.10.07
We signed highly rated 17 year old DC Daniel Thomas on free transfer today. With the sale of Downer, we needed another decent fill-in to accompany Paul Moss as depth behind Lewis Buxton and Franklin Simek.

***

27.10.07
Ossett Town (0) Harrow Hill (0) FA Cup 4th Round Qualifying
We played with virtually no regulars in this match and it showed as we were outplayed by the home side. The reason we were able to take a draw out of the match was the work of MOM Daniel Austen- in his first appearance of the season. Austen was brilliant in the match and there were at least five saves that were of the game saving variety. Our backline featured youngsters Ben Blair and Daniel Thomas in the middle and the backline was a lot less effective for the mix and match style of it. We were clearly missing the leadership of injured Paul Moss- who I had planned on starting. Our best chances came from Mark Smyth who was set free twice on good passes from Matty Hendra, but missed wide of the net both times. The regular first liners got a nice bit of rest, but the results showed our disorganization on offense.

retired_destiny1124

31.10.07
Harrow Hill (1) Ossett Town (2) FA Cup 4th Round Qualifying Extra Time
All I can say about this match is that I am pretty disappointed in our performance. I went with much the same lineup as we had played at Ossett Town, fully expecting them to play better the 2nd time around. Instead, they played worse. We took the lead in the match when a heady play by David Poole saw him intercept a goal kick from Nick Buxton. Poole put the ball into the open net from 30 yards. Daniel Thomas then made a youngster's mistake when he tripped Richard Tracey in the area. Tracey converted the ensuing penalty and it was back to even. Our passing left a lot to be desired today and we had problems as Adam Smith and Matty Hendra continually held the ball too long instead of pushing it up the pitch. We went to extra time still even at 1-1. They scored what would be the match winner when Gavin Bolger missed an easy tackle at the top of the area and Steve Hussey whistled it inside the left post past Daniel Austen. We never came close to getting a good scoring chance, despite all our scurrying around in the remainder of extra time. It was a bitter 2-1 loss. The only good point was more rest for the first line.

retired_destiny1124

3.11.07
Harrow Hill (3) Aldershot (0)
It was a pleasure to see the first liners pick up where they left off as we easily trumped Aldershot 3-0 at Larksfield Road. We scored in the opening moments of the match when a pretty passing sequence sprung Dean Morgan and he threaded a shot past Nikki Bull to give us the lead. Neil McCafferty had a solid debut and really seems- at least for his first match- to be the midfielder we were missing to balance out the attack. Good passing created more chances and Richard Langley took advantage to pot a brace as he scored late in the first half and early in the second half. With the 3-0 lead, I was able to pull out Morgan and Langley to standing ovations. We managed to preserve Ross Flitney's clean sheet when Jordan Fowler cleared a ball off the line in the last few minutes of the match.

retired_nakie24

This is excellent

retired_jgirl87

Of course it's excellent - it's a Faramir story. KUTGW :thup:

retired_destiny1124

Thanks Champmanv, Spav- I am glad you are enjoying it.

***

6.11.07
Bath (2) Harrow Hill (1)
We played well enough to earn a better result in the match, but instead fell 2-1 to a mixture of excellent tackling by the Bath backline and unlucky shot placement. Richard Langley scored in the first minute of play to give us a quick lead when he whipped home his 5th of the season after a good passing sequence. We gave that one back when Tony Bedeau was left unmarked on the far side of the net and they curled a long cross to him. Bedeau fired it past Ross Flitney to even things. We had a lot of good passing, but every key tackle seemed to belong to them. Langley was the recipient of a good centering pass from Billy Sharp (on for a slightly injured Dean Morgan) but blasted his shot off the post. They scored the late match winner when our defense got caught running around and left Kyle Critchley unmarked for a 20 yard shot from the edge of the area. It was a tough 2-1 loss.

retired_destiny1124

17.11.07
Harrow Hill (2) Exeter (1)
After falling behind on Colin Miller's penalty following a disputed call of Franklin Simek's holding in the area, we fought back to win a close match 2-1. Carl Laurie made a terrific pass to spring Dean Morgan through a seam in the Exeter backline and he made it pay off with a good shot inside the right post past Mark Fletcher. After coming close to grabbing the lead several times in the second half, only to see Morgan and Richard Langley hesitate and the Exeter backline made saving tackles before they could shoot. The match winner came after Liam Rosenior was whistled for a handball in the area and Adrian Nevins converted the penalty kick. We survived their late rally attempts to hang on for the win.

***

17.11.07
We made another purchase today when we finalized the transfer purchase of James Corbett. Corbett, a 27 year old FRC, will help our midfield depth and though his salary is a bit heavy on our rolls, it was still a chance to get another quality player for the modest cost of 4K transfer price.

retired_destiny1124

24.11.07
York (1) Harrow Hill (4)
We fell behind again when Lewis Buxton was outleapt by Neil Teggert and he flicked the ball past Ross Flitney. Most of the first half we spent trying to get a good pass through to spring either Dean Morgan or Richard Langley. That finally happened later in the half with a good pass that allowed Morgan to blast away. Terry Steele got his hand solidly on the ball, but was unlucky as it still snuck in inside the right post for Morgan's 10th goal of the season. We took the halftime lead when Darren Pratley made a pretty long pass that picked out an unmarked Langley on the far side of the play. Langley drilled it inside the far right post to put us ahead 2-1. The second half was another demonstration of how well our offense is coming together. The trio of Morgan, Langley and Pratley bedeviled the York backline and Langley and Morgan both added their 2nd goals of the match. Both had chances to finish out the hat-trick, but missed by inches in their chances. The 4-1 win was a great show of how far the club has come and how dangerous the Morgan-Langley tandem has become.

retired_destiny1124

27.11.07
Harrow Hill (1) Burton (0)
I spent much of this match railing against our passing, which was uncharacterstically bad. We were having a difficult time working our way up the pitch as we continually gave the ball away on either bad decisions or bad passing. Some of that I could lay off to the fact that it was mostly our 2nd line playing in this match, but that really is no excuse. We managed to send the home fans home happy though when James Corbett capped off a fine debut by drilling 25 yard free kick past Mark Howard in the 84th minute to reward us with an unearned 1-0 win. David Green made several excellent saves in the closing moments to preserve the win and earned MOM honours for his efforts.

***

29.11.07
We lost Lewis Buxton to a leg injury for a couple weeks. Hopefully, Paul Moss will do a capable job filling in for him.