Havering v Waltham Forest

Havering travelled to Waltham Forest on Saturday the team directly below them in the table and welcomed back Luke Joslin and Toshan Patel into the squad who both missed the previous week. However, player coach Jack Barlow remains sidelined with injury and Kyle Orton and Paul Dover were also unavailable.

The game started in usual fashion with Havering keeping lots of possession pinning the home side back for the early exchanges but were unable to create any opportunities of note. The game turned on a side line hit with Havering expecting the decision to go their way and were caught out of position with Forest quickly moving the ball into the middle of the pitch and then playing in their attacker in space on the left of the D who finished calmly into the far corner past Andy Gaut.

Confidence was now high for the home team who nearly added a second when a forward raced through 1 v 1 with Gaut, Gaut came off his line well sending the player wide who was unable to get off a shot. Havering rallied before half time and forced a string of penalty corners; Liam Appleyard went close from an Alex Lee pass with the Forest keeper making a good save from close range and at another corner a loose ball fell to Alastair Lewis whose shot hit Adam Willett on the way to goal bringing the half to an end.

The second half started in a similar vein to how the first half had ended with Havering keeping lots of possession and Forest looking dangerous on the counterattack. It was from one of those counter attacks that the home side doubled their lead with Havering losing the ball high up the pitch with Forest moving the ball quickly to a forward who drove along the baseline and somehow managed to squeeze the ball into the net from a tight angle.

With nothing to lose and time on their side Havering changed formation and started to exert added pressure on the Forest backline with Luke Alexandrou stretching the pitch high. Adam Lumbers started to find Alexandrou on the left with the forward winning a handful of penalty corners. Harry Andrews had his shot saved from the first but from the next corner Lewis effort on goal came back out to Andrews who smashed the ball back through the keeper’s legs. With all the momentum Havering continued to push and were awarded another penalty corner after a good interception from youngster Oliver Hinton. This time Andrews found Willett who deflected into the net at the back post to bring Havering level.

Havering set out in search of a winner but in a game where bad tackles had gone largely unpunished Andrews was somewhat unlucky to receive a yellow card with under ten minutes on the clock swinging momentum back in the home sides favour. Forest pushed everything forward and after a good run down the right a midfielder crossed to the penalty spot for a waiting forward who deflected the ball into the far corner of the goal, Havering got a bit of luck with the umpires spotting a foul in the D prior to the shot with the goal being disallowed. Back to full strength Havering went back on the attack but were beaten by the clock ending the game 2-2 in what was probably a fair result for both sides.

With half term next week there is a rest week so Havering will return to Campion on the 24th February looking to avenge an earlier season defeat against Hertford.