| On the bright
side, Borough are off the mark
with their first point of the
season, this ended a run of
seven league defeats, and there
were no sendings-off. But this
was poor fare, against opponents
who, on this evidence, will
be fellow battlers with Harrow
in the Ryman Premier basement
this season.
There were some early exchanges
which featured a Cousins shot
wide for Heybridge, while Pat
Gavin drove Daniel Dyer’s
deep cross past the post. Hadrava
shot past the far post for Heybridge
before, in the 27th minute,
Harrow missed the best chance
of the match. Stuart Elliott’s
clever free-kick picked out
Richard Goddard, whose header
across goal was headed over
from six yards by Abdulai Yoki.
Gavin then missed a chance when
he forced his way past two defenders
but dragged his shot wide. Dyer
shot wide from Yoki’s
pass in the closing minutes
of the half.
If the first half had been
poor, the second was worse still.
Yoki shot wide from 20 yards
early on, and Placid in the
Heybridge goal had to dive to
save from Ross Fitzsimon, who
had beaten two defenders on
a mazy run from the right-hand
touchline. At the other end,
Heybridge substitute Window
beat Fitzsimon and shot past
the post.
Borough boss Edwin Stein mystified
everyone with a bizarre substitution,
bringing off Yoki and sending
on central defender Dean Marney
in a striking role. As at Maidenhead
last season, the idea was singularly
unsuccessful. Elliott had a
late shot over the bar, and
Placid saved from substitute
Fabio Valenti after a good break
by Clemente Lopez. But this
game could still have been going
at 6 p.m. and the sparse crowd
would still have seen no goals,
and little entertainment.
|
