March to the Arch continued this weekend, when Hertford Town took on Oxhey Jets. Match report next.
Hertford Town 0 Oxhey Jets 1
Match Report by Matt Harris, direct from Hertford Town FC Website.
In the end, the game was decided by a single defensive error but in truth it was a disappointing game from a Hertford point of view and had Oxhey’s number 11 not contrived to provide us with comedy miss of the season just before half time, the margin could have been wider.
There was no faulting the atmosphere at Hertingfordbury Park as Hertford Youth’s finest helped to swell the ranks of supporters with a classy display of their skills prior to the match. Residents of West Street, who had their peace disturbed by the noise, even took up their Zimmer frames to come along and see what the fuss was all about.
Sadly, the magic of the FA Cup didn’t transcend to pitch level and the opening exchanges were scrappy. Chet Johnson was as busy as ever and he had the best chance of the match after dribbling past defenders before seeing his shot blocked.
After 15 minutes, Oxhey had seen few chances and while the Blues looked dangerous down the right, Reece Dobson and Xaniel Doku were finding it hard to get involved in the match. Slowly the Jets came back into it and in the space of two minutes, they contrived two good chances to open the scoring. Firstly, a long range effort saw Lee Robinson pull off a great save low to his left and then Lewis Puttnam found Gavin Hart in space but his shot veered just wide of the post.
Hertford’s main threat still looked to come from the right and two in-swinging free kicks from Lee Roberts caused problems in the Jets defence.
By now, Puttnam was the main danger to the deadlock so we thought it was pretty decent of him to try to get himself sent off. After a two footed challenge saw him see yellow, some later handbags with Micky Nathan could have seen him trudging to the stands.
Sadly for us he stayed and right on half time came the most entertaining part of the match. A good move down Oxhey’s right saw an Oxhey player clear – to save his blushes let’s just call him Adam Lowton, number 11. After rounding Robbo he blasted against the bar in a true ‘my missus could have scored that’ moment.
Somehow therefore, the scores were level at half time.
Half Time: Hertford Town 0 - 0 Oxhey Jets
To be fair, Hertford started brightly in the second half and while chances and overall play were even, the Blues had the clearer opportunities.
First, Doku rounded the keeper but somehow managed to drag his shot wide and Reece Dobson had good chances to break the deadlock. Lee Roberts also had a good opportunity from a central free kick some 20 yards out.
Just as it looked as if we would all be heading to wherever Oxhey is for a replay, the stalemate was finally broken on 80 minutes. A defensive error left Robbo stranded off his line and he was calmly lobbed by Jets substitute Lee Armit.
Hertford refused to give up and still had chances and with the very last kick of the game, a Lee Roberts shot struck the bar with the keeper beaten.
The end result was close and in truth we had our chances but the score line in the end was probably fair.
Full Time: Hertford Town 0 - 1 Oxhey Jets
Hertford Line-Up1. Robinson. 2. Cooper 3. Packer. 4. Maybury. 5. Nathan(c). 6. Hewitt. 7. Roberts. 8. McArdle. 9. Johnson. 10. Doku. 11. Dobson.
Subs Used: Absolutely none
Hertford Town lead the Merit table with 14 points, however, Oxhey Jets will entertain Hendon in the next round. Come on the Jets!
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