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DOUBLE
OR QUITS?
by Paul Davidson
Harrow
Borough 0 Woking 0 Optimum Interiors Capital League , Tuesday 24th
February 1999
It
takes a special kind of devotion (or stupidity my better half says)
to go out and watch your team play on a freezing cold February night
when there is live football on tv. It takes an even more special
kind of devotion to go out and watch your teams reserves play on
a freezing cold February night when there is live football on tv.
What kind of devotion does it take therefore, to go out and watch
your teams reserves on a freezing cold February night when there
is live football on tv, when they have taken only one point from
all their league games so far this season?
Luckily,
for the sake of the future of our national game, there are other
fans as devoted (or stupid) as myself to want to do just this. And
so it was that a couple of dozen or so of us were at Earlsmead on
Wednesday night for the Capital League game against Woking. I dare
say that fans of any team other than Harrow Borough would not take
too much success from a reserve side that, up to the middle of February,
had only collected one point from their league games since the season
started back in September.
Fans
of the Borough however know that every reserve game played against
teams in the almost surreally named Optimum Interiors Capital League
is probably more difficult than the games played by the first team
in the Rymans Premier (probably soon to be known as the Rymans Stationers
(not quite as big as W H Smith but much bigger than Forbuoys) League).
Certainly
this has proved to be the case so far this season. It is fairly
certain that of the six teams in the league, only the Boro's reserves
would not be pushing for a promotion place to the Conference had
they been playing at the same level as the Boro's first team. Indeed
Rushden and Diamonds reserve team, currently top of the Capital
League, would probably be well clear of Rymans League leaders Aylesbury
if they competed at the same level.
It
was a great surprise therefore to watch the Boro's reserve team
totally play Woking reserves off of the park on Wednesday night,
only to come away with a single point instead of the deserved three,
but in doing so doubling their points total for the season so far.
Boro's stars of the night were undoubtedly the two young centre
backs Mark Cooper and Gary Hedges who hardly gave the Woking strike
force (with the unlikely names of Kwabena Ammaning and Damien Panther)
a sniff of goal all night.
Young
South African goalkeeper Ryan Paterson made three superb saves in
the Boro goal within the first twenty minutes or so, but was not
really troubled for the rest of the match. Paterson, who will be
replacing the suspended David Hook for the next three league games
for the first team, looked a more than capable deputy and it would
appear that the Boro's fans should have no worries on that front.
With
Jon Barrie Bates, getting in some much needed match practice after
a ban, bestriding the midfield like a Goliath, Boro should have
wrapped up their first win in this league well before the end, but
it was just not to be. Both Ishmael Dodds and Kash Walker had a
couple of chances each to win the game in the last twenty minutes,
but could not get good enough efforts on target to beat the excellent
Woking goalkeeper Stanborough.
Overall
though it was a terrific performance from the reserves who must
believe that their first win in the competition cannot be too far
away now. Harrow Borough team Paterson , Webster , Blake , Cooper
, Hedges , Randall , Latty ( A N Other ) , Bates , Dodds , D. Clarke
( Sakpere )( Drain ) , Walker.
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