Tue 2nd Apr 2019
League
Harefield 0-3 TAFC Development team
TAFC goals: Clem Asante, Joe Naylor, Will Foley
On an excellent playing surface and a wide pitch this was undoubtedly the best match we have been involved with this season. For the first 25 mins Harefield Utd matched our efforts and quality and if anything made us play at their pace.
They played passes out to their two wide men and used the width of the pitch to good effect. Both sides created chances and defences were stretched and the midfields had to work hard to keep their respective opponents at bay.
Our opponents had 2 efforts disallowed for offside to our 1 and their custodian made a tremendous save from a Joe Naylor effort. In our goal Dave Saunders played his part in keeping a 10 th clean sheet in 11 games and did well under sustained pressure from a number of well delivered corners.
At the other end Billie Busari went close with a drive across the keeper as did Prince Nimoh from the right hand side, Les Barkers -Obua,who put in a near MoM performance as the left of the defensive 3 should have scored from a corner.
As the half wore on we adjusted to the pace and began to contain our opponents and Tom Shaw set up a couple of chances for his teammates. In midfield Connor Blake was ever always around the action and neat and tidy, alongside him Will Salmon has been a revelation and showed his commitment with a lung bursting run to prevent a cross in a dangerous situation.
At half time little mention was made of the fact that only 3 points is enough and a gentle reminder given just to be a bit more careful in possession .Any worries that our "fitness "would be found out were ill founded as,apart from sloppiness from the second half kick off ,we played at a very decent level. Will Foley was dominant in midfield and skipper Chris Clark put his first half behind to not only snuff out Harefield attacks but also feed Prince Nimoh with some excellent passes one of which he should have scored but hit the keeper with Joe Naylor screaming for a square pass. Joel Nketia also now relaxed on the ball and apart from winning a couple of towering headers,the quality of hides build up play improved hand over fist.
On 65 mins Clem Asante who was carrying an ankle knock from Saturday was introduced and we were able to play up to and off him. With in 10 mins Will Foley retrieved a headed clearance to the right of their area and manufactured a cross for Clem to glance into the net.
With confidence flowing we set about getting a second and this duly came when Clem Asante was fouled 25 yards out ,Billie Busari delivered a pacy far post cross where Joe Naylor rose to power the ball home.
We then nearly let Harefield back in by unnecessarily over committing in midfield but generally we controlled the game and with 5 mins to go Will Foley scored with a direct free kick into the proverbial postage stamp to seal an excellent 3 points which has put us top of the table for the first time this season,although Ascot Utd are level on points but gave a game in hand.
We have now won 13 League games on the spin and scored 52 goals against 6 in that time inc 9 clean sheets in the last 10 .
As ever the commitment tonight ,getting there and then the performance from the entire squad was commendable.
D.Saunders.C.Clark,J.Nketia(M.Stacey), L.Barkers-Obua.
B.Busari,C.Blake,W.Salmon,W.Foley,P.Nimoh.(A.Holmes)
J.Naylor,T.Shaw(C.Asante)