retired_destiny1124

28.9.04
Harrow Hill (1) Suttons United (3)
We battled visiting 3rd place Suttons United til the bitter end, but our luck continuals to be abysmal, while theirs was unfortunately better. We spotted them an early goal when Paul Moss couldn't handle Andrew Martin and he drove home a rebound after Daniel Austen blocked a shot from Joff Vansittart. We came back and equalized when Nathaniel Griffiths whipped in a wicked cross that Ryan Ashington was able to deflect past Phil Wilson. The frustrations for us were many after that- as Ashington and Griffiths both hit posts squarely and Adam Parker drilled a shot off the crossbar. Ashington was again shaking his head when his beautiful free kick sailed just over the bar. Suttons then took all three points when Martin leaped higher than Moss and deflected a Vansittart free kick past Austen. The last goal in the 3-1 loss was just a gift to them as Austen made the save on a free kick- only to see our backline stand and watch as Mark Peers walked in and rammed home the rebound. It was disappointing to see us play so well and then fall apart at the end, but that is a hazard of young teams and we are by far the youngest team in ECS. It was a match we clearly missed having Mark Berry at rightback in, though Wes Hammond didn't acquit himself badly while filling in.

retired_destiny1124

2.10.04
Harrow Hill (3) Aveley (3) FA Cup 2nd round Qualifying
I was coldly furious with my club after we squandered a 3-0 lead at home against non-league Aveley and wound up with a 3-3 draw in our FA Cup 2nd round qualifying match. This wasn't our top lineup as I was trying to rest some players, but we looked very comfortable after having taken a 3-0 lead on goals from Steven Fraser, Liam Eves and Adam Parker. Instead, our backline fell apart and played very stupidly the remainder of the match. Lea Jones was forced to give away a penalty for taking down James Wood in the area and they converted it against Michael Jago to give them a way back into the match. Then Wes Hammond and Liam Parrington were caught up the pitch and Colin Fry motored down to make it 3-2. They scored the equalizer when we failed to mark Rio Alderton and they crossed smartly to him to head into the left side of the net. We are a young club, but that excuse carries no water when we play a wasteful match like we did today. I can't shy away from a portion of the blame though as my defensive tactical switch proved to be the wrong one to combat Aveley's attack at the end.

retired_destiny1124

6.10.04
Aveley (2) Harrow Hill (3) FA Cup 2nd round Qualifying
Our FA Cup 2nd round Qualifying replay was at Aveley's Mill Field and it seemed an awful lot like deja vu. Michael Husbands picked this match to showcase some of the talent that attracted me to him. Nathaniel Griffiths did a wonderful job of setting him up twice with good crosses that allowed him to deflect his 1st and 2nd goals as a Harrow Hill player past Dave Pearce. Early in the second half a good through ball sprung Husbands and he caught the far left corner to complete his hat-trick. With a 3-0 lead, it was time once again to try and figure out a way to hold on to it. My last match choices were ditched in favor of a different approach and it seemed to be working a charm. That is until Darren Fowler ripped home a 40 yard free kick past Daniel Austen and suddenly we were right back in the soup- and some of the same doubts lingered in both my mind and our players- would we blow a 3-0 lead again? Everyone was starting to really sweat when they worked an excellent passing sequence that freed James Mason and he blasted a shot that Austen got a hand on, but couldn't keep out of the net and it was back to a one-goal match in second half extra-time. Husbands missed two golden chances to put the match out of reach in one-on-one situations as he missed over the net both times. They came close to equalizing off a free kick when Mason's header skimmed just over the bar, but when the final whistle blew- we had survived with a 3-2 win that sends us on to the 3rd Qualifying round in FA Cup competition.

retired_destiny1124

16.10.04
Harrow Hill (1) Workington (1)
Workington was who we hosted in the 3rd round FA Cup Qualifier and we got off to a terrible start when Ian Arnold slipped away from Paul Moss in the first minute of play to score his 5th goal of the season past Daniel Austen. We worked hard and rallied, but were having problems solving their keeper Adam Collin. Finally in the 78th minute Matthew McGowan's through ball put Nathaniel Griffiths away and he didn't miss as he fired a low shot past Collin for the equalizer. Neither side could get the match winner, so we face our 2nd straight road replay after the 1-1 draw. Nothing like making things difficult for ouselves...

***

18.10.04
There was reason for good cheer today as Arsenal allowed Jordan Fowler to come to us for free- if we could sign him. Jordan acknowledged that he was happy with the chance to play here and liked the dressing room- so we were able to sign him and now he is our player- no longer on loan.

retired_destiny1124

20.10.04
Workington (1) Harrow Hill (2) ET FA Cup 3rd round Qualifying
I can't even begin to say how proud of the boys I am after this trip to Workington. We had to battle and overcome mistakes, but they never quit. We scored first when Paul Moss fired home a 25 yard shot through a crowd in front following a scramble after a free kick. Wes Hammond made a bad mistake and that allowed Niall McNamara to break in unmolested and fire a shot inside the far right post to equalize at 72 minutes. We came close, oh so close to winning the match several times in regulation, but the posts weren't kind to us and Adam Collin made a pair of brilliant saves. Daniel Austen was matching him in our end as he also made a couple superb match-saving stops. In extra time, Jordan Fowler went out and left us with only 10 men. Carl Laurie showed the heart of a lion though and he joined a counter attack late and was able to deflect a cross from Danny Singh past Collin to put us ahead in the first portion of extra time. We had to survive wave after wave of Workington's attack in the second portion, but Austen stood tall and even though we were dead tired- we managed to pull out the 2-1 extra time win that will send us to play Hinkley from ECN in the 4th round of Qualifying.

***

21.10.04
Injuries continue to hurt us badly as Michael Husbands will now miss the next month due to strained knee ligaments. We are very thin up front and I may be forced to dip into the free transfer list for some help- unless we can loan someone to help.

retired_destiny1124

23.10.04
Harrow Hill (2) Welling (0)
Things certainly looked grim when Wes Erskine decided to keep mouthing off to the ref despite an initial yellow card and saw himself booted from the match with his 2nd yellow card at 21 minutes. Because of how winded our regular starting lineup was from the Workington win- we had started a patchwork lineup against Welling. There was a grim 'stick-to-it' mentality of the 10 men left on our side and we continued to give as good as we took and it was a keeper's duel in the first half. Both Michael Jago and Martin Brennan gave a good account of themselves with key saves as they kept things scoreless at halftime. The second half continued on same as the first, but I was worrying about our club tiring badly at the end. Danny Singh and Paul Bonar came on at 54 minutes to try and get some fresher legs in- and it paid off for us. Singh ran down a ball in the left corner and sent a looping cross that Peter Griffiths (recalled from reserves because of a dire need of a rested midfielder) showed exquisite timing as he deflected the ball past Brennan for his 1st goal at Harrow Hill. Welling tried to rally, but still found our resolute 10 man contingent tough to break down. Singh finally netted his 1st goal for us on a quick counterattack that caught Welling's backline flatfooted. With the 2-0 lead we battened down the hatches and tried to survive the storm of their rally as best we could. Jago played superbly- earning MOM honours as we held on for the surprising 2-0 win.

retired_jgirl87

You seem to be getting a reasonably consistent run of good results. KUTGW :thup:

I'm always a little wary of posting in one of your stories, Faramir - they always sit together in such a neat little block when you post all four of them and I hate to move one out on its own with my response.

retired_destiny1124

Thanks Spav Ah, never worry about posting on the stories, ok? I just update them all together in either the wee hours of my weekday mornings (before I leave for work) or at night (on the weekends)- that is the *only* reason that I post them all together- because easier to update all of them together. Thanks again for the comments- this one is going to be a bit of work to avoid relegation, since only the dribs and drabs of players are wanting to come to 'Harry' Hill

***

27.10.04
Grays (3) Harrow Hill (2)
We squandered another 2-0 lead as we let Grays come back to beat us at their Recreation Ground when Freddy Eastwood fired the match winner past Daniel Austen at 88 minutes. We had earned the lead in the first half when Nathaniel Griffiths and Danny Singh had scored, but they had drawn a goal back just before halftime. With us trying to play a defensive standoff- Scott Sudgen had drilled a 25 yard shot past Austen, which was disappointing since Daniel had played superbly to that point in the match. Ryan Ashington had missed two gift chances in the first half and we wound up short because of our failure to execute on both sides of the ball.

***

29.10.04
A little help arrived up front as we were able to secure the season long loan of Southampton's 20 yr old Welsh FRLC Arron Davies. Davies has more pace than anyone we have on the squad and should be a welcome addition.

retired_destiny1124

30.10.04
Hinckley (1) Harrow Hill (0)
We finally came up short in our 4th round FA Cup qualifier as we were edged by Hinckley 1-0 in a closely played match. They managed to come up with the lone goal of the match at 84 minutes when Wayne Dyer's shot trickled past Daniel Austen and into the net. We had chances, but the number of matches we have been playing and the lack of depth in our squad seemed to catch up with us in this match and we didn't have enough to rally at the end.

***

2.11.04
I added another promising midfielder on free transfer after Sheffield Wednsday allowed 21 yr old AMRC James Tevendale to move to us. Both my scouts thought he would be a good addition to our midfield mix and we can certainly use the depth he give us.

retired_destiny1124

3.11.04
Cambridge City (2) Harrow Hill (1)
Our match at City Ground against Cambridge City started so well. Good passing got Arron Davies free in the area and he scored his 1st goal for us. That lead didn't last long though as Louis Riddle drilled a 30 yard shot that Daniel Austen should have had, but went in for the equalizer. Next we botched our defensive coverage and that allowed Jonathan Stevenson an excellent chance in the area and he didn't miss as we fell behind 2-1. The match was another exercise in frustration for us from that point on. Duncan Roberts made four sensational saves when it looked like each one was labeled 'equalizer'. I blew up at the officiating crew later in the half. Danny Singh had subbed on and the Assistant Ref must have had a burr in his bonnet on him- because he was called for two offsides when he was nowhere near being offside- on the last one he wasn't even the furthest Harrow Hill player down the pitch as Nathaniel Griffiths had drawn two defenders deep. The 2-1 loss was hard to take, since we certainly played well enough to win the match.