The OHAFC 2nd XI suffered their fifth League defeat of the season on Saturday afternoon, losing 2-0 away to the Old Merchant Taylors 1st XI in Northwood. Despite dominating the opening half hour, the Blues struggled to create many chances and fell behind from a corner. The second half was a more even affair and the visitors came within inches of equalising when Andres Hutchinson drilled a shot against the inside of the post only for Taylors to break up the other end and score the vital second goal. The defeat leaves the OHAFC seventh in the Division Two table with five games remaining.

Despite Taylors sitting in ninth place in the table prior to kick-off, the twelve Harrovians who travelled to Northwood for the 11.30am kick-off were fully aware of the tricky task at hand: despite emerging victorious from the first meeting between the teams on the Hill back in November, the OHAFC had been somewhat fortunate to take the points on that occasion, the visitors dominating possession for long spells. There was also a strong incentive to continue gathering points in the remaining games, with the middle five teams in Division Two separated by just four points. And there was a further element of intrigue added to the fixture with the first ever appointment of a female referee to an Arthurian League fixture. In the event, Sarah Day was barely noticed – after a few early interventions the game flowed as normal with only some tight offside decisions being queried – standard stuff for this level of the game.

With the school on half-term, the sides were privileged to be using the impressive main pitch, a wide, flat surface that is a vast improvement on the usual venue for fixtures at MT’s, the uneven, sloping pitches across the road.

And the visitors made full use of this in an encouraging first half that saw them dominate possession, looking secure at the back and threatening down both flanks. Hovey, following his rather dishevelled appearance in the Cup game at Epsomians, has returned to form and he looked lively in an unfamiliar right wing position, raiding down his wing on a regular basis with plenty of gusto, if a slight lack of end product.

In fact, it was the same story elsewhere on the pitch, with Will Payne on the left and Andres Hutchinson through the middle both looking like they could be on the cusp of the breakthrough without quite finding the final pass or shot. The close calls began racking up for the visitors: Hovey flicked the ball past his man but couldn’t quite beat the keeper to the ball; an excellent interchange of passes in midfield between Hutchinson and Lederman allowed the latter to feed Payne but the pass was marginally over-hit and the attack snuffed out; Payne and Hutchinson then broke at pace with just two defenders in their way, but the final pass forced Payne wide and the chance was lost; Dolbey then fired wide, unluckily so, from an awkward volley and Hovey came close to scoring with an acrobatic overhead effort that looped over the keeper but landed on the roof of the net.

Throughout this pressure the Harrow goal had remained well protected, despite skipper Geoff Taunton-Collins being forced to deploy himself at centre-half, Tom Ward’s absence already hitting the side hard. But after half an hour, and with practically their first attack of note, the hosts took the lead from a corner. The first ball in was cleared and the Harrow rearguard pushed out. The ball fell to the Taylor’s wide man who may have been striking for goal. Instead, his effort sailed to beyond the far post and found one of the centre-haves lurking, possibly in a slightly offside position, and he produced a fine looping header back across goal and inside the far post.

It was tough on the visitors and the goal shifted the momentum of the game, the ten minutes before the break far more even. The intricate midfield play Taylors had exhibited at Harrow in the previous meeting began to materialise once more and the halftime whistle was greeted with some relief by the Blue shirts.

Arjun Chopra replaced Massey at left-back for the start of the second period, marking his first League appearance of the season. And the veteran was immediately thrust into action as Taylors started the second half as they had ended the first, pushing forwards and looking the more dangerous of the two sides.

Chances proved hard to come by however, with Taylors’ second half performance mirroring that of Harrow’s first half almost exactly: half an hour of dominating possession but unable to create many clear opportunities, followed by quarter of an hour with their opponents in the ascendency. Unfortunately for the OHAFC, the only difference was that their period on top did not begin with a goal – but it should have. A superb move saw the ball worked out to the right, then switched back to the left and ended with Andres Hutchinson being played in down the inside of the penalty area. He cracked a shot across goal that looked destined for the far corner only for the ball to cannon against the inside of the post, along the goal line and out. The Blues kept the pressure on and looked like pressing once more when the ball was lost deep in Merchant Taylors territory. They swiftly broke upfield, Harrow players sprinting back in desperation. The ball was played across the box and, as Pittalis came off his line to dive at the attacker’s feet, the ball was slipped beneath him and into the back of the net.

Unsurprisingly, the goal knocked the stuffing out of Harrow but to their credit they fought on to the end, so nearly getting the goal their performance had deserved when Taunton-Collins saw his header from a cross from the left clip the top of the bar and fly over.

It was hard luck on a Harrow side that performed superbly in the opening and closing stages of the game but lacked the killer instinct to make their superiority count. If ever there was an example of the side’s struggles to score without a recognised centre forward, Saturday’s ninety minutes would make a perfect case study. For Taylors, it was just recompense given their performance both on Saturday and in the earlier fixture on the Hill.

The Blues next travel to Eton for the return fixture with the Old Enemy before a three-week break that brackets the club dinner at the Hurlingham Club on March 1st.

*Photos courtesy of Arjun Chopra & Ed Massey