A week is a long time in politics, according to the saying. It is a very long time indeed in football, never better illustrated than in the first week of November 2003. On Saturday 1st, Harrow totally outclassed Braintree to win an FA Trophy tie. But a week later, Braintree got over a first minute Harrow goal and went on to take a deserved three points in this foot of the table Ryman League encounter.

Borough boss Edwin Stein named the same side that had done so well in Essex, and Harrow got dream start. The kick-off led to a throw-in, and a long delivery by Abdulai Yoki flew off the top of a Braintree defender’s head, for David Ocquaye to touch the ball over the goal-line from a few inches out, for his fourth goal in about an hour’s play.

Surely the opposition were there for the taking after the previous week’s drubbing? But Borough did not press home their advantage. Instead, Braintree began to get back into the game, and Keita Karamoko had to save at Crosby’s feet after Dean Marney missed a header. They equalised after 26 minutes when Marney’s half-clearance from a left-wing cross went to Asambong, whose volley went in off the underside of the crossbar.

Just as Harrow had started the first half with a bang, so did the visitors in the second. Again, there was a left-wing build-up and a cross to the far post was crashed past Karamoko by Asambong.

Borough had a great chance to equalise straight away, when Clemente Lopez slipped the ball to Robert Charles who got clear of the defence. But he took one touch too many and Rutherford was able to block his shot.

Rutherford saved well from a Lopez cross but went down ‘injured’, becoming the first of a number of Braintree players to cynically exploit a referee who didn’t seem able to distinguish between injury and acting, enabling the visitors to break up Harrow momentum and waste time.

Braintree broke quickly on the left in the 72nd minute, Perry Norman missing an interception. Karamoko came out and was controversially adjudged to have brought down a raiding forward. Asambong completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot. Straight away at the other end, Rutherford appeared to flatten Ocqauye, but this time Mr Salt did not see a foul, and in the aftermath the ball came to Lopez on the edge of the area with an unguarded goal to aim at, but his shot flew high and wide.

Borough pulled a goal back after 80 minutes. A rare decent build-up, between Ross Fitzsimon and Ocqauye, ended with a Norman cross beyond the far post headed over the keeper by Lopez.

Harrow then threatened an equaliser, Rutherford diving on Richard Goddard’s header just before Kevin McKenna could get to the ball, and Fitzsimon blasting Danny Murphy’s pass just past the post. But plenty of Braintree ‘injuries’ helped to ensure that it was the visitors who went off with the points and plunged Harrow to the foot of the table.

  1 - Keita Karamoko
  2 - Perry Norman
  3 - Danny Moore
   (sub Danny Murphy 62)
  4 - Steve Dogbe
  5 - Richard Goddard (c)
  6 - Dean Marney
  7 - Abdulai Yoki
   (sub Fabio Valenti 58)
  8 - Robert Charles
  9 - David Ocquaye
10 - Ross Fitzsimon
11 - Clemente Lopez
   (sub Kevin McKenna 85)

  1 - Paul Rutherford
  2 - Steve Good
  3 - Andrew Julius
  4 - Ollie Blackwell
  5 - David Culverhouse
  6 - Bradley Quinton
  7 - Bradley Green
  8 - Dean Parratt
   (sub Lee Roberts 87)
  9 - Victor Asambong
10 - Allan Crosby
   (sub Ben Cranfield 82)
11 - Gregg Williams
   (sub Andy Purcell 74)

Yellow Cards: Andrew Julius (29), Allan Crosby (33)