Havering 3 v 4 Dereham

In similar fashion to the last home game, Havering conceded a goal very early on in the game through a short corner. Despite the best of efforts, this time round, the comeback could not be completed and Havering ended up losing the game 4-3. Havering reacted encouragingly to being a goal down within 2 minutes. They managed to equalise through Ollie Cipa as a defender deflected his cross across the Dee beyond a hapless keeper in a desperate attempt to block the ball from reaching the sticks of Chris Dunn and Connor Poulain who were well placed to deflect it in themselves.

Havering kept trying to push forward but were too direct at times. This helped a well organised Dereham team to stifle Havering’s play effectively high up the field of play for most of the first 35 minutes and resulted in the home team suffering numerous turnovers in dangerous areas of the pitch. It was no real surprise that Dereham managed to double their lead half way through the half through a well worked short corner before converting a fast counter attack that found Havering’s defence unprepared to end the half 3-1 up.

Coach Paul Johnson addressed key issues during the half time talk and the second half was almost entirely played in Dereham’s half bar a few counter attacking tries from the visiting team. Havering were now managing to stretch the Dereham defensive setup and spaces in the centre were being found more easily as a result. Josh Cipa took full advantage of this by scoring his first ever league goal for Havering 1s with a well struck and precise reverse hit. Paul Johnson equalised shortly after from a short corner. Havering tails were up at this stage and they kept pushing forward in search of the winning goal. Unfortunately they were unable to achieve this and to the contrary conceded a short corner towards the end of the game following a Dereham counterattacking move. They converted this short corner to fix the final result at 4-3.

The Havering players have got many positives to take away from this game with character, determination and a will to never give up being at the forefront. Dereham came out on top on the day due to a strong first half and a better shot to goal conversion rate by the end of the game.