OHAFC II 1 Old Carthusians II 3

The 2s cup run in the JLC came to an end on Saturday afternoon after a well fought battle against Div 2 high-flyers Charterhouse. Having been given the “glamour tie”, the 2s were well aware of the task at hand, and went into the game knowing that only their best performance of the season would be enough to see them through to a third final in 5 years.

The squad were unable to call on any support from senior club figures, with the 1s requiring all their resources for a relegation battle away at Forest. The Curry brothers, relatively new to Arthurian League football, were not to know that a Saturday-Saturday ski trip in late March needs to be cleared with the Club Chairman, and won’t be forgiven for such a crass oversight of family holiday planning in future seasons. This left Orr-Ewing in need of new recruits, and calling on fan’s favourite Cyprian Owen Edmunds to add to his season tally of 1 game and 1 goal. With the help of Woolley, a series of passive-aggressive read receipts being sent on Whatsapp, and some referential humour to a niche Shrek video, the young winger was coaxed down from his tranquil life at Nottingham for the important fixture. Owen Edmunds kept his skipper on tenterhooks until the last minute, contriving to both ignore all phone calls until 7 minutes before his train left Nottingham, and then arranging to meet Woolley “somewhere in Hammersmith”, having run out of battery on his phone.

The 2s welcomed back Harry Woolley to the squad, after the veteran came through a leisurely 20 minutes for the Vets the previous weekend only mildly scathed and declared himself fit. There was also a debut for Alexi Pittalis, brother of Kyri and a relative unknown before the fixture, being variously described by regular 2s players who knew him as either “a full back” or “a shell”. Alexi’s inclusion was also remarkable for being the 10th brother to play 2s this season, following brothers Orr-Ewing, von Hirsch, Curry and Bajwa, and adding to the Richardsons, Callanders, Hoffans and Comptons across the club.

Harrow lined up: K Pittalis – Massey – Orr-Ewing – Maydon – Robinson – Taunton-Collins – Kerry – Bajwa – Owen-Edmunds – Khan – Stead

Bench: Woolley – Dalzell – A Pittalis

The early stages of the game were tentative as Charterhouse got used to the well rubbered 3G pitch in Chiswick and strategically placed overhead cables. Harrow had the first chance, with Taunton Collins crossing to find Owen Edmunds in space, only for the youngster to drag his shot wide.

Harrow defended resolutely, keeping Charterhouse out and shutting down attacks through Bajwa and Kerry’s good positioning and robust tacking in midfield, with Maydon and Orr-Ewing stamping out anything that broke through the first line. Charterhosue were more dangerous down the wings, with Robinson and Massey having to remain vigilant against pacey opposition. Robinson sustained a nasty twisted ankle on the half hour mark, but when Orr-Ewing signalled to Woolley to replace the struggling full back, he got a shake of the head and a generic waft of the hand over a frail body that seemed to imply that Woolley's on-pitch contribution would be similar to that of Jackie and Fred on the touchline. Robinson soldiered on.

Indeed, Harrow again nearly took the lead, with Orr-Ewing putting in a free kick that landed well for Bajwa, whose shot was cleared off the line by the Carthusian defence. The battle heated up all over the park, with a quality referee and his assistants calling plenty of fouls but keeping the game from boiling over. Azhar Khan received a couple of wallops from his opposite man, whose aerial challenges took him through the back of the Harrow attacking midfielder on a number of occasions. Ben Kerry was lucky to escape a yellow card for scything down the opposition left winger, whose deft touch away from the Harrow enforcer gave him a believable excuse to hack away at the clean set of heals he’d been shown. An unsavoury moment from the Carthusian defender, who ran 40 yards shouting “red, red, red”, was made slightly laughable by the really rather sweet admission that the fouled winger was his brother.

Despite matching the opposition in the opening half an hour, Harrow were breached after conceding too many set pieces in dangerous areas. On their third corner in succession, an in-swinger beat the men in the middle and dropped perfectly for the Charterhouse man to nod home at the back post for 1-0, with a few accusatory glances exchanged among the Harrow side who were unsure who should have headed the ball to safety.

Moments later, Harrow were dealt a cruel, and ultimately critical blow as they conceded a second. With Massey beaten by the fleet-footed winger, the ball inched towards the weirdly uncrossable touchline before being whipped in at great pace to the middle. Orr-Ewing and Maydon were not close enough to the tall striker, who bundled the ball home past Pittalis to make it 2-0. Time and again, we come back to the same argument about technology being used to support the referees, and at this level, with so much at stake, it’s frustrating to see the Arthurian League continue to eschew the services of Hawk-Eye for crucial decisions.

At 2-0, half time was punctuated with a flurry of encouraging sentiments about the next goal being vital, the wind being worth “at least a couple” and it not being over just yet, as well as Orr-Ewing taking the opportunity to bring on Dalzell and Pittalis. Owen Edmunds looked to be suffering the effects of his long train journey, and hadn’t dealt with the chronic lack of sock-tape on offer on the touchline. Alexi Pittalis, correctly identifying himself in the warm up as a holding midfield player, had an impressive cameo for around 10 minutes, showing ambition and good technique in the middle of the park. His contribution was sadly short lived, seeing him limp off with an ankle injury just as his influence was lifting the team.

Taunton-Collins was back to his industrious best down the right flank, frequently entering into a foot race with the Carthusian left back – the full back had a good game, but pushed the leniency of the referee to its full extent with numerous fouls on the Harrow winger.

Unfortunately, Harrow conceded the vital goal, much vaunted in the half time team talk as being critical to the game’s outcome, just before the hour mark, which effectively ended hopes of a Tollington final. Having won the header in their box, the ball dropped kindly to the Carthusian skipper, whose chest down and volley had a whiff of Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden in 2006 about it. The sound of ones goalkeeper shouting “I can’t see anything” as the ball whistles past you is a fairly ominous one.

Harrow manfully fought back into the game however, and continued to play a high level of football against a fit, aggressive and technically sound opposition. They were rewarded for their efforts when Dalzell mozied his way past 3 Charterhouse defenders and into the opposition box, with his cross perfectly meeting the run of Stead. The striker made it 3 goals for the season, with a well hit shot, capping off an afternoon of hard work as an often isolated lone striker.

Orr-Ewing, fired up on half time Jelly Babies and misty eyed at the fading memory of by-gone JLC finals, was lucky to stay on the pitch after he lashed out at a Charterhouse midfielder. The opponent was gracious enough to entreaty the referee for a pardon, realising that his boot had caught the Harrow skipper’s face in the build-up, and the resulting stamp hadn’t fully connected with the planned target of his nut-satchel.

At 3-1, Harrow had a spate of a dozen corners, accurately delivered by Dalzell and getting cleared from the goalmouth with increasingly desperate challenges. For the last 20 minutes, Harrow dominated possession and territory, yet came away with nothing. A wondrous free kick from Dalzell, well captured by Woolley as he warmed down gently enough not to require his kit to be washed, struck the cross bar in the dying minutes, with the twang of the woodwork serving as a metaphor for the death knell of this season’s cup run.

Harrow were a credit to their Club and the standard of Division 3, but were ultimately beaten by a well-structured, good footballing side. Most of the squad stayed in the clubhouse to watch England narrowly miss out on a six nations victory, but had many delicious lagers to drown sorrows and raise spirits in equal measure.

Photos of the day can be viewed here