The Bucks stopped here

Harvesters South went looking for their third straight win since the season restarted and found it at home against the West Herts Bucks on a bright and warm April afternoon on Pitch 3, which maintains second spot in the league and keeps the pressure up on Bushey Rangers at the top.

The first half was quite even. Both teams had a 'game plan' although quite different approaches. Harvesters were trying to use the pitch size to their advantage by getting the ball out wide, whereas West Herts focused all their energy on playing down the middle, long goal kicks, long free kicks and route1 balls over the top to try and turn the South defence. There was an early chance for South, Luca thundered the ball hard and high into the roof of the net but as the ball bounced down, the goalkeeper scoped it back out and neither the Bucks linesman or the referee could confirm if it had crossed the line. No goal. Harvesters broke the deadlock soon after with a well worked team goal from end to end, culminating in an excellent through ball from Archie to find Luca onside to finish low, 1-0. The Harvesters defence worked hard to snub out the West Herts strategy and developed their off-side trap to press the game high into the West Herts half of the pitch. Despite the long ball approach, Bucks' first real chance came from a loose Harvesters pass but the striker failed to beat Harrison and shot directly at him. By compressing the game, Harvesters created chance after chance, with several players guilty of wasting excellent opportunities by shooting high, wide, or both and hitting the post twice from a narrow angle. With the first half coming to an end, a South corner was cleared by the opposition but only as far as the Harvesters defenders on the half way line, West Herts pressed and the South defender failed to make good contact on a cross field pass and presented a rare opportunity for Bucks to attack Harrison's goal and this time they made no mistake, 1-1 and almost immediately the whistle blew to end the first half.

West Herts arrived with just 11 players available and that started to take its toll on Bucks as the game went on. In contrast, Harvesters had an almost full bench, with plenty of fresh legs and eventually South were able to press their advantage with the all-important next goal. This time, George played a free kick from 10 yards into the opposition's half and found Archie, who was strong and a bit too slippery on the ball for the West Herts defence and fired home from 6 yards. This goal marked the end of the West Herts challenge as their heads dropped, Monty hit the post and South had another goal disallowed, this time the linesman didn’t flag for a ball out of play, South scored and then he called the referee back saying that the ball was out but he wasn’t sure which way the throw in should be awarded. No goal again. Finally the game was wrapped up with a well taken penalty from Luca, after he has teased the Bucks defenders into committing a foul just inside the box. 3-1 was the final score as South continue to chase Bushey in the league table.