harlow 2 - afc sudbury 2 harlow win 5-4 on pens

[Uncle Urchin]

so off we traipsed to the land of roundabouts and no road signs once again with nett clad in the red and white of harlow and me wearing a yellow shirt with a yellow silk hankey in the pin stripe pocket....(well you have to keep it fair)

 

great game of football with the first half mostly dominated by harlow and when harlow got the second in the first 10 of the second half it looked all over...cue three sudbury changes and all of a sudden it was all sudbury and the two goals came in 84 and 88 minutes....all sudbury in extra time (great header disallowed) and then the heartbreak of penalties and I knew the sudbury boy was gonna miss...he started his run up 25 yards out and decelerated into the ball....

 

in the end the second team went up and that is the way it should be really but a great days entertainment and the two sets of fans were magnificent....honours even in the noise stakes and not a steward or hostile glare in sight as the two sets of fans drank and cheered and drummed and bantered side by side....as usual the harlow staff and officials were efficiency and friendliness personified and they and their new stadium will grace the ryman premier league next season...afc will get over todays disappointment and their fans will drive them onwards and upwards next season I am sure...a great advert for non league and indeed ryman footie

 

thanx and well done to everyone...

[YELLOW]

Congrats to Harlow but hard luck to Sudbury. Would have loved to have seen them go up and must be tough on them the fact Braintree won today as well.

 

Looking forward to seeing them next season though.

[David Drewett]

Harlow are gay so how did u loose

[Uncle Urchin]

david...please do not post things like that on the forum..if you have nothing constructive to say...then say nowt please..

 

you enjoy many priveledges at our club....don't spoil it...

[Dagger03]

Just to add a bit to Unc's comments - Harlow went ahead with a penalty after three minutes - it was for hand ball, and was perhaps somewhat harsh - but two mins later a Sudbury player appeared to be brought down inside the area, and the referee did not give a penalty - both pen and non-pen were very close decisions, and I thought that both should have been penalties.

 

This apart, there was not much in the first half, and it was only on the hour mark that Sudbury had their first shot on target.

 

Harlow's second goal came when the Sudbury keeper had collided with the home numner 11 and Kenny Davis tapped the ball home with the keeper and the home player both on the ground. Many referees (most referees in fact) would have given a foul on the keeper. This was brought home a bit later when the keeper made a good save and collided with the home player, and a foul was given (when it never looked anything like a foul).

 

Until Sudbury brought on their three subs, they were not in the match, but then they took over, and deservedly levelled in the last minute of the match.

 

As for the Sudbury goal which was disallowed six mins from the end of ET, it looked a perfectly good goal (the Sudbury number two raced through past the defender and headed over the keeper - definitely not offside (though Jay was not sure) - so much so, that the announcer gave out the name of the scorer (David Head). The linesman got it wrong again a minute later with another offside flag. Sudbury had a great chance in the very last minute when Gareth Heath went clear, and the keeper made a good save when really the ball should have been put into the net. But Harlow also went close with a header in the first period of ET.

 

I dislike penalties - I also dislike play offs, as the team that comes second deserves to go up on merit, not on play offs or on penalty lotteries - but Harlow took their five with great confidence. Sudbury had two players who looked very unsure - the one who missed, spent a long time holding the ball and gazing at it before going back on an over-long run up, then slowed down a bit, but to be fair it was a well taken penalty - the keeper threw himself to his left and made a great save.

 

The crowd was well behaved but very quiet for long spells - the air raid siren was very much in evidence - Jay wants to know if we can have one at Hornchurch - I want to know if they can be banned.

 

Who did we think deserved to win? We both thought the yellows deserved to win.

 

Downside was the long queue for the food and the three year old kid who kept on kicking me throughout the match - (not his fault, he was bored). Interesting to note the number of persons with Harlow blazers - there must have been more than enough for a quorum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ladyhawk]

Hi Karl and Jenny thanks for coming yesterday fantastic day (and night) thanks to Max for call and see you all next season

Sally

[Uncle Urchin]

our pleasure sally thank you....it was a rare day out for jen and myself away from the pressure of putting on a match day and we thoroughly enjoyed it.... she hasn't stopped reminding me tho' that I lost...

 

we pride ourselves at Hx on putting on excellent match days but you guys raised the standards yesterday...congratulations to you all and we'll see you next season...

[Bionic II]

My pleasure Sally, you're a great bunch and welcome to the Ryman Prem.

Bad luck to AFCS, also a great lot as well, shame someone had to lose, but we move on and looking forward to another season in a good league.

 

102 days to go, can't wait!

[London Hawk]

Thanks for the kind words Unc, a great day had by all and we will see you next season.

[Uncle Urchin]

no probs LH.....just the way I saw it unfold...

 

excellent show...