The 2s travelled to Hertfordshire on Saturday 26th October to take on runaway early league leaders the Old Albanians, who had won five of their first six games.

Skippers Tristan David and Miles Kellock were forced to start the game with a bare eleven after an initial no-show from Calum Butler, though the young defender would eventually arrive just before half time.

Despite the threadbare squad, the 2s started brightly on an excellent surface, passing the ball well and enjoying long unbroken spells of possession. There appeared to be little to choose between the two sides, despite what the league table suggested going into the fixture.

However, it soon became clear that the Albanians posed a threat in wide areas, with wingers capable of delivering dangerous balls into the box. It was from one such cross that the first clear-cut opportunity of the game emerged. A free kick whipped into the Harrow area was met firmly by an Albanian head and appeared destined for the bottom right corner of the net, but Rory Craig – making his 26th consecutive appearance in goal for the 2s - somehow got his tall frame down quickly enough to turn the ball just past the post. An early contender for save of the season.

Craig’s intervention would prove to be only a temporary reprieve. The ball was soon knocked back into the danger zone and floated over the Harrow keeper’s head, where it was met by an unmarked Albanian attacker at the far post for a tap-in. 1-0 to the home side with around 20 minutes on the clock.

The 2s were a touch rattled to go a goal down after a decent start, and the Albanians then enjoyed their best spell of the game. In particular, a succession of in-swinging corners and a rudimentary tactic of overloading the penalty box with taller players caused problems for the OH backline.

But the Blues managed to weather the storm and keep the scoreline at 1-0, inspirationally marshalled by Alexi Pittalis and Giacomo Grasso at the back. It wasn’t long before the 2s started to play their natural game again, and this soon resulted in an equaliser – Andres Hutchinson finishing from close range from David’s low cross after an impressive, flowing move that involved most of the team.

The Albanians seemed shellshocked by the goal, perhaps guilty of a degree of complacency after their barnstorming start to the season. The contest was now totally even, with Kellock and David looking especially dangerous out wide and having the better of the opposition full backs. Callum Barrett also looked comfortable on the ball in an unfamiliar midfield role.

In this context, it was disappointing that the 2s contrived to fall behind again just before half time. The usually faultless Geoff Taunton-Collins failed to clear a loose ball just inside the box. A grateful Albanian attacker pounced and curled an inch-perfect, first-time strike beyond Craig’s reach and into the far side of the goal.

Harrow regrouped at half time and were buoyed by better-late-than-never reinforcement in the form of a somewhat bleary-eyed Butler. The mood of the team-talk was positive, with agreement that the opposition were not as strong as their league position indicated, and a sense that something could be got from the game.

Sure enough, the 2s started the second half looking like a different team. The Albanians were suddenly impotent against the OH defence and relied on speculative long-range efforts. Meanwhile, in attack, the Blues grew in confidence and dominated possession. The main

barrier to an equaliser was a series of marginal offside calls from referee Chris Bodell, including a flag against Hutchinson despite what appeared to be a perfectly timed run on to David’s through ball. Taunton-Collins’ vociferous shouts from the touchline for VAR intervention were, sadly, to no avail.

Eventually, however, the pressure bore fruit. Grasso was the unlikely goalscorer, the centre back finally registering his long-awaited first goal for the Club after some 40-odd appearances. There was nothing pretty about the strike - lashed home amid an old-fashioned goalmouth scramble after the home side had failed to clear a corner – but this was the last thing on anyone’s mind during the exuberant Harrovian celebrations that followed.

With just 10 minutes to play and having twice fought back to level terms against the league leaders, all the 2s had to do was shut up shop and preserve what would have been a valuable point away from home. But there was an air of inevitability about what happened next. For the third time in six games, Harrow dropped points due to the concession of a late goal. In fairness, it was a goal worthy of winning any match. A cross came into the area and looked to be both too low and slightly behind its intended target, but the Albanian attacker – who had posed minimal threat all half – somehow connected perfectly and struck a looping volley. Craig was a mere spectator as the ball flew beyond him and into the top corner.

Bizarrely, an Albanian player was sent off in the wild celebrations that followed, receiving a second yellow for kicking the ball away. But Harrow failed to capitalise on the one-man advantage in the final few minutes, appearing to have run out of ideas and struggling to create a clear opportunity. The final whistle came with the end result a hard-fought 3-2 defeat.

The team were not too downcast at full time, reflecting that they had gone toe-to-toe with the best side in the league (on paper, at least). The 2s were unlucky to come away empty-handed and could not have legislated for the freakish moment of individual brilliance that settled the contest. Still, though the season is young, the worrying tendency for this team to concede late goals has to be remedied if pre-season ambitions of promotion from Division 3 are to be realised.

Match report courtesy of Rory Craig