The OHAFC 2nd XI’s once promising season is in grave danger of fizzling out without so much as a whimper as the Blues contrived to produce a performance as stodgy as the pitch in losing 2-1 to the Old Haberdashers on the Hill on Saturday morning, the visitors completing a League double over their opponents and making it six wins out of eight in all meetings between the teams over the past fifteen years. After kick-off was unnecessarily delayed by a ridiculous debate about the size of the goals, Habs took the lead in slightly fortunate circumstances when a shot from just inside the box deflected off Ludo Palazzo and found the bottom corner. The Blues enjoyed their own slice of luck when they levelled from the spot soon afterwards, a defender blocking a Max Curry cross with his hand. But despite having a man sent to the sin bin for ten minutes early in the second half, the visitors proved doughty opponents and snatched victory with a breakaway goal midway through the second half.

Having suffered just two defeats from their opening ten League games, and been mightily unfortunate not to have earned more than just the four wins, the OHAFC 2s have now lost four of their past six fixtures, as well as finding themselves dumped out of the Junior League Cup on penalties by Merchant Taylors. Although three of the four losses have come against strong sides all chasing promotion, this latest reverse came against far weaker opposition and the hosts had only themselves to blame.

Despite rays of sunshine crowning the Hill for what seemed like the first time in months, conditions underfoot on the Phil were far less encouraging with the main pitch considered unplayable by the groundstaff and the lower one faring little better, uneven and soggy, the half nearest the Alcock Pavilion especially soft underfoot. The hosts’ preparations were then disrupted twice prior to kick-off by a couple of bizarre interventions by the opposition, who first claimed they had been told the fixture would be played on an artificial surface, before then making a lengthy protest about the height of the goals. The first complaint was just wrong and dismissed immediately, the second should have been dealt with in a similar fashion, but instead, lengthy discussions followed, phonecalls to the League were made, even an email sent from the visitors saying they would only play the match under protest. Clearly the modern obsession with analysing the game from every available angle before taking minutes only to arrive at a wrong decision is not restricted to the heady heights of the professional game. The game eventually kicked off, ten minutes later than scheduled, with the fallout to continue after the final whistle.

As it turned out, the drama off the pitch proved rather more exciting than the dross served up by the two teams on it in ninety minutes of what can loosely be termed ‘action’. The pitch didn’t help, clearly, but despite fielding a side blessed with considerable attacking talent, the home side could never get going, chances for both sides proving hard to come by. Harrow keeper Rory Craig had already been forced into one excellent block from close range, one of a string of increasingly necessary interventions the stopper is being called upon to make in recent games, before he was then cruelly beaten after twenty minutes. A spell of Habs pressure ended with the ball being cut back from the right wing to the edge of the box. The forward took a touch to his right before shooting, the ball taking a slight nick off the inside of Ludo Palazzo’s thigh which sent it flying into the bottom corner, Craig poised to make the save.

But the hosts recovered well enough and within five minutes were on level terms, some strong work from Max Curry inside the penalty area saw him shrug off a challenge before turning to cross. The ball was blocked by the arm of a Habs defender, referee Kacper Ignatiuk ruling the player had enough time to get his arms out of the way but failed to do so. Skipper Tristan David took the responsibility on himself and made no mistake, firing confidently into the bottom corner.

The 2s were bolstered in their second half efforts by the availability of 3s regulars Henry Collins and Freddie Everett, whose own game had been called off the day before, although the latter was suffering from a chest infection that would limit his effectiveness. Both players came on for the start of the second half which was notable mainly for the sin binning of the Habs winger for speaking out of turn once too often. The visitors had already been clearly warned a couple of times and now fell foul of the referee, the home side set to profit from this lack of discipline.

But in the passage of play that followed it was almost imperceptible which side was a man down, the ball spending as much time in the Harrow half as it did the other end. A few sporadic breaks came to nothing, whilst at the other end the hosts enjoyed a huge let off when a quick break saw the ball switched to the left wing and the forward run on only to thump his shot against the outside of the near post, Craig comfortably beaten. Restored to eleven men, with one Habs player cheekily suggesting they were actually performing better without their sidelined colleague, the visitors made no mistake a few minutes later, an almost identical move saw a break down the right end with a ball crossed low to the far side. Centre-half Calum Butler had actually positioned himself perfectly but almost inexplicably missed the ball attempting the interception and it was allowed to run through to the winger who made no mistake, managing to fire low past Craig despite slipping on the perilous surface.

The Blues huffed and puffed for the remainder of the match but never threatened with any consistency, David coming closest to snatching an equaliser when he fired Lederman’s cut back from the left just inside the near post only for the keeper to make a fine instinctive save. Further frustration for the Harrow skipper followed when he was then shown a red card following the final whistle after being unable to contain his anger with the attitude of the Habs skipper any further. It was a further unnecessary act and a rather sad finale to an unedifying spectacle, the sight of the Habs captain and his father then measuring the height of the crossbar with a hurriedly-fetched tape measure hardly reminiscent of the Arthurian spirit. Both sides are stuck with each other, however, Habs unlikely to take their protest over the goals much further given the final score.

Roll on next season’s two meetings...