Men's 1's come back to draw

Good opening game for the first string with Havering showing good character by coming from behind.

Havering approached this game in a confident mood following last season’s promotion to Premier B. The squad has been strengthened by the return to the club of Alex Defroand and Glen Noller as well as the new signings of Alex Simpson and Harry Jenkins. The team, however, had a stark awakening during the first 20 minutes of the game, when Letchworth came out with all guns blazing. Letchworth applied aggressive pressure high up the pitch and managed to limit the possible outlets for Havering defenders and midfielders who were getting very little time on the ball. Their efforts were rewarded as they took a two goal lead.

Havering had to react to this and clawed a goal back through debutant Simpson following a neat short corner move. Unfortunately, Havering were stunned again shortly after - they were caught in possession and Letchworth took full advantage of this by scoring their third goal.

Things started to change towards the end of the first half. Havering midfielders were now controlling the ball for longer periods of time and their forwards were seeing more of the ball in dangerous positions. The defence was well led by Paul Johnson and man of the match Jenkins.The second half was a completely different kettle of fish as the vast majority of the game was played in the Letchworth half with Havering fighting hard to recover whatever they could out of this game. Letchworth started to tire out and to give away more short corners and Havering managed to achieve a well deserved draw through two more short corner goals, the first of these coming through a powerful Ollie Cipa strike and the second through another Simpson reverse finish from close range. The end of the game was disrupted but momentum was now on Havering’s side, the team believed they could get all three points and continued to push hard. The chances to win this game were created but these were not capitalised following some unfortunate finishing and determined defending by Letchworth.

All in all it was a good opening game and Havering showed good character by coming from behind. A lesson was learnt and Havering know that they need to start games stronger if they want to reach their goal of promotion to Premier A this season.