Saints take Hart in draw
Hartley Wintney 1 Stow 10pen
Saints 1 Hastings 83
Evo-Stik League South East (Saturday 14 October)
If there was any trepidation in the Saints camp ahead of their trip to the Hampshire home of the early league favourites, it was never on show as they were quickly out the blocks, putting the home side under constant pressure and looking the most likely to take early command.
With a lot of the play going through Gary Burrell and the pace and power of the Max Holland, Rob Hastings and Jake Cass all looking to reproduce their form of last week, the home defence was struggling to keep up.
Yet the opening goal came at the other end. Hartley have a powerful front three of their own and when one of them went down under minimal contact from Carl Dennison, the referee immediately pointed to the spot, cautioning Dennison in the process. Dean Stow converted from the spot.
If this allowed Hartley to get their game going, Saints hardly took the foot off their own and so an enthralling game developed with both sides playing dome excellent football. Saints had their own penalty shout when Webb handled in the box but their appeals fell of deaf ears. A thumping shot rattled off the post at the other end as Hartley sought to build on their advantage but the break was reached with the game still very much alive.
Too often such an enterprising first half is followed by a drab second but both sides came out looking to carry on where they had left off. While still dangerous, Hartley set up more defensively, looking to sit back more and play over midfield into their roving forward line. The Saints defence managed this superbly with great team play and an offside trap that was sprung on a regular basis.
Saints continued to battle the home defence and the extra spice that was to ultimately unlock it came with the introduction of Remmel Clarke. His stronger and more direct play began to open up the cracks that were a result of the battering that the persistent Jake Cass had been providing.
With the momentum very much in Chalfont's favour, Hartley inadvertently contributed to the goal they were trying to prevent as they forced a none too subtle injury stoppage to take some heat out of the game. From the restart the ball quickly found Clarke on the right and his run to the byline caught Hartley out of position. His pass into the area was held strongly by Cass before he passed into the path of the fast arriving Rob Hastings and his close range finish was perfectly timed.
This sucked a lot of the life out of the home side and if there was to be a late winner it was always going to come from Chalfont. However, the clock wound down on an excellent game and the points were shared.
Saints: Carl Dennison, Mark Goodman, Ryan Haugh, George Fenton, Alan Hedley, Adam Kirby, Max Holland (Remmel Clarke 70), Alex Paine, Jake Cass, Rob Hastings (Jack Mullan 88), Gary Burrell (Victor Osobu 60).
Attendance. 143