Park View 0-1 Hoddesdon Town

Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties League Division One South

Park View 0 (0) Hoddesdon Town 1 (1)
(Gallagher 11’)

A challenging trip to relegation-threatened Park View saw the Lilywhites secure a third win in eight days to further consolidate their place in the top-half of the table. Eight league victories and five draws in sixteen games since mid-January is the evidence of a remarkable turnaround that has given optimism for times to come for this squad.

This success was by no means one of the Lilywhites’ better performances. Once they had scored, however, the Lilywhites never looked as if they might lose but, once again, their failure to make the most of their chances left the result in the balance right up to the final whistle.

The winning goal came in only the 11th minute when Blue Gallagher drove the ball into the net via a deflection, from the edge of the box. It followed a very bright start in which Conor Casey started and finished a good attack where his goal-bound effort in the third minute, was headed off the line with the keeper beaten.

More opportunities followed but with attacks regularly breaking down in the last third, no more goals were forthcoming before the half-time break.

The second half followed a similar pattern but, with tempers beginning to fray in the hosts’ ranks, much of the play lacked fluency and fragmented. The Lilywhites continued to look the more likely to score, though, and they had enough chances to make the points safe. But Conor Casey lobbed over the bar when through on goal in the 61st minute and Dion Laughton hit the underside of the bar in the 83rd minute and then blazed over the bar from close range in the 87th, when set up by Syd Barker, after he had surged forward from inside his own half and pulled the ball across the front of the six-yard area.

The Lilywhites had done enough to win but they really should have made the margin of victory a bit more comfortable.

The Lilywhites now face two long trips to the south-east Essex coast against the two clubs currently occupying the bottom two places in the league but with the prospect of lifting themselves to safety, they won’t be easy games.

Man-of-the Match: Bailey Eden

Team: Ethan Gannon, Syd Barker, Hadley Richards (Jimmy Agnew 68’), Jack Riddle, Jack Gibbs, Bailey Eden, Arnis Lala (Dion Laughton 60’), Blue Gallagher, Callum Bennison (Brad O’Mara 73’), George Rankin & Conor Casey (Tobi Prentice 73’),

Unused subs: None.