Cheshunt 1 Haringey Borough 1
A slow start on a heavy pitch saw both sides spend the first half misplacing passes & giving up possession too easily. Cheshunt again looked sluggish similar to the first half on New Years Day, Haringey looked the more likely side with Andronicus Georgiou finding a lot of space on their right, and always available as the ‘out’ ball. The Cheshunt line up featured Jalen Jones making his debut, and with Adam Crowther out injured he took his place alongside Taylor McKenzie in the central positions with Tom Gardiner moving to right back.
Haringey went close with a curling free kick from Georgiou on twenty minutes, Cheshunt responded with a shot from Joe Re blocked on the line, and with the loose ball crossed back in immediately, Mo Camara headed on target but Lamar Johnson the Borough keeper was well positioned. Johnson had good positioning again to deal with a Taylor Miles volley from distance, but the home side were not getting behind the visitors defence. At the other end, twice the Cheshunt back line had to scramble clearances from within the six yard box as Haringey applied pressure with the re-signed Adeyinka Cole prominent. Haringey took the lead when a long clearance caught the home defence square on the half way line and Alfred Bawling ran the length of the Cheshunt half and squeezed the ball beyond the advancing George Marsh.
Cheshunt did have the ball in the net when Joe Re wriggled clear in the Borough box, his shot blocked with the ball spinning to Amadou Kassarate who slotted home, only for the referee’s whistle to be blowing before the ball hit the back of the net, had he not played an advantage, was he giving a penalty for a foul on Re as he took the shot? Alas no, remarkably he deemed the Ambers captain had fouled the tackling defender in taking his shot.
The second half saw Cheshunt press for an equaliser with more possession, but no clear cut chances, the visitors defended in numbers but still looked dangerous on the break. Bawling had chances and didn’t take them, As the game turned scrappy each side accumulated three yellow cards apiece. Cheshunt bought two forwards on for extra attacking options and the excellent Zubayr Boadi to get their passing game going again, they now looked the more likely to score but were still just wide of either post with shots, and just failed to connect with some well worked crosses. The referee indicated an additional five minutes to be added and the Haringey midfield were slowing everything down as much as possible to see the game out, when inexplicably from a Cheshunt corner Jorge Djassi Sambu covering the near post for Haringey wrapped his arms around a Cheshunt forward and threw him to the ground right in front of the referee. An injury time penalty awarded, which Ambers striker Rowan Liburd despatched gratefully to see Cheshunt escape with a point from a match form suggested they perhaps should have expected to win.
