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First team report  

Sat 12th Dec 2009
League
Hertford Town 2-4 TAFC First team
TAFC goals: Ashley Addison (2), Darren Franklin (pen), Chris Salmon
In true cowboy fashion Ashely Addison came riding over the hills, or in his case off the subs bench, to rescue his colleagues from being mauled by the natives of Hertford Town. After taking a two goal lead through Darren Franklin and Chris Salmon, we looked comfortably in control and had lots of opportunities to extend our lead even further, but the Hertford Town players rallied and pulled the two goals back to level the scores. This spirited fight back put us on the rack for a while until Ashley’s intervention with a brace of goals finally clinched the win and doused the home side’s fire.

We were missing leading scorer Mark Burfoot and other luminaries such as Steve Smith and Andy Mullins, so we should be heartened by this win and the fact we scored four goals for the second week running, which maintains our position as top scorers in the Premier Division. Having gone all season without scoring Chris Salmon has now acquired a taste for finding the net and did so again with a crashing header at the start of the second half to make it 3 goals in two games. It would have been more but for the home keeper Lee Robinson denying him on two occasions with super saves.

Hertford may be languishing near the foot of the table but Hertingfordbury Park is always a daunting place to play as evidenced by the fact that in our five previous visits we tasted success only once. After some heavy rain leading up to the game the pitch was heavy and very bobbley which made it very tricky to play good football, but never-the-less both sides did their best and succeeded in producing a very entertaining spectacle.

We were slow out of the traps and the home side held the early advantage. One promising move by Hertford was halted by the Referee prematurely blowing for a free kick which came to nothing and when Owen Beale did score he was flagged offside, as was Vinnie Iannone a few minutes later. With Steve Smith absent Brett Court moved into the centre of defence to partner Henry Thomas with Rob Duncan coming in at left back and Rob soon made his presence felt with a timely intervention which snuffed out a potentially dangerous move.

After the initial uncertainty we started to take a hold of the game with Graham Hall pulling the strings in midfield ably supported by Chris Salmon in the centre and Tony Fields and David Whicker on the wings. We were playing some good football despite the poor surface and Graham Hall’s quickly taken free kick released Vinnie Iannone but his cross was prevented from reaching Tony Fields by a timely interception from the keeper. Attila Korsoveczki tried a spectacular lob from distance but keeper Mike Underwood was equal to it and saved it easily. Most of the attacks were heading towards the home goal and our reward came in the 19th minute when Tom Neil’s rash challenge on David Whicker was punished by the Referee and Darren Franklin slammed home the penalty to put us 1-0 ahead.

Spurred on by the goal we created a series of chances which should have at least doubled our lead with Tony Fields, Vinnie Iannone, David Whicker and Darren Franklin all going close and Chris Salmon must have thought he had scored with a terrific header until the keeper made a brilliant save low down by the post. In response Hertford’s left winger Rob Luya got on the end of a free kick but shot well wide but Attila Korsoveczki missed a sitter when he latched onto a bad back pass from Brett Court, which was undoubtedly caused by a bad bounce. The Hungarian forward let us off by shooting wide with only Henry Thomas on the line.

After a slow start we dominated the game and should have had a bigger lead than 1-0 at half time, but we played well which was the main thing.

HT: Hertford Town 0 Tring Athletic 1

At the start of the second half the home keeper superbly clawed away a shot from Chris Salmon that was heading for the top corner but could nothing to prevent Chris’s powerful header going in off the bar from the resultant corner to put us into a commanding 2-0 lead just 80 seconds after the restart. For the next 20 minutes we controlled the play and ran Hertford ragged and we should have killed the game off. But over elaboration and a desire to seemingly walk the ball into the net let our hosts off the hook and amazingly kept the deficit to just 2 goals.

Our wastefulness could have proved disastrous when the home manager boldly brought on two attackers in Dominic Musafiri and Ryan Redford. The latter has been a thorn in our side in the past and so it proved again as Hertford found a new zest and were inspired following Pablo Ardiles superbly struck shot following a corner in the 65th minutes which dipped under the bar and narrowed the score to 2-1. Parity was then achieved by the home side six minutes later when Rob Luya, looking well offside, strode through and calmly slotted the equaliser passed Mike Underwood. It was now game on as Hertford could sniff a possible victory.

But inspired substitutions were not the domain of just the home dugout as Manager Phil Casserley did his bit as well by bringing on Ashley Addison in the 76th minute who returned the favour with two goals. His first came from an acrobatic overhead kick in the 80th minute following a long throw from David Whicker and a lay off by Graham Hall. His second and the killer fourth goal came a minute into added time when Darren Franklin, who had a superb game, broke quickly and passed to Ash to finish off. The final action of the game saw a superb save from Mike Underwood when he tipped a rasping drive from Lee Roberts over the bar.

Thus after a difficult period in the second half we ran out 4-2 winners and overall deserved the victory.

FT: Hertford Town 2 Tring Athletic 4

This was an encouraging performance from the players, showing they had the mettle to lift their game again after being pegged back. They could easily have settled for a draw but after dominating large parts of the game that would have been a poor return. It would be harsh to say that we should have been more ruthless in front of goal when we have scored 57 goals in 21 games. The win keeps us in 2nd place with a slightly inferior goal difference than leaders Aylesbury who still have 3 games in hand.

Teams:

HT: Lee Robinson, Matt McArdle, Tom Neil, Ryan Gordon, Michael Cooper, Joel Maybury (Capt), Jason Coughlan (Dominic Musafiri 62), Owen Beale (Lee Roberts 76), Pablo Ardiles, Attila Korsoveczki (Ryan Redford 62), Rob Luya. Subs not used: Scott O’Donoghue, Joe Scales.

TA: Mike Underwood, Dave Salmon, Rob Duncan, Graham Hall (Capt), Brett Court, Henry Thomas, David Whicker (Danny Gray 80), Chris Salmon, Vinnie Iannone (Ashley Addison 76), Darren Franklin, Tony Fields. Subs not used: Matt Myatt, Keith Eldridge.

Goals:

HT: Ardiles (65), Luya (71)

TA: Darren Franklin Pen (19), Chris Salmon (47), Ashley Addison (80, 90 +1)

Crowd: 60

HT Website: www.hertfordtownfc.co.uk




Darren Franklin opens the scoring with a penalty