The last of this trilogy of fixtures against Thundridge Reserves either side of Christmas ended in another convincing win for Old Herts Athletic.
Played on an old fashioned muddy pitch and in cold and windy conditions Old Herts made less mistakes and made more of their chances than the always competitive Thundridge Reserves outfit, who had several significant changes in their starting eleven from the previous cup match.
Within the first ten minutes Jim Reeves for Old Herts had a good attempt on goal and Rob Burman headed narrowly wide from a corner kick. There was good movement in midfield involving Djemal, Christian and Chris Burman and then a one-two between Conor Dylan and Christian resulted in the Thundridge goalkeeper having to make a good save low to his right.
Old Herts pressure resulted in a free kick being conceded by Thundridge and Djemal’s kick was only narrowly knocked wide by Christian.
Thundridge managed to get themselves into the game with a threatening attack, but Old Herts came straight back and a Want through ball found Jim Reeves caught narrowly offside.
Although the game was now turning into a midfield battle it was 20 minutes before Thundridge had their first shot on goal and that was easily dealt with by Bolton in the Old Herts goal.
Good play from Chris Burman, Jim Reeves and Christian forced an Old Herts corner. And then a great effort from Conor Dylan from all of 30 yards screamed over the Thundridge bar.
A injury hampered Green limped off to be replaced by Stebbing, before the deadlock was broken on 29 minutes. A Chris Burman ball down the wing sent the speedy Jim Reeves away and his low, hard cross was met with a spectacular diving header by Jowitt!
Old Herts Athletic 1 Thundridge Reserves 0
Want then had a further effort which was again well saved by the excellent Thundridge keeper before Thundridge launched a counter attack resulting in a shot that went well wide.
Jowitt, obviously encouraged by his earlier success was now proving a thorn in Thundridge’s defence and a determined run onto a through ball into the penalty area saw him brought down. Old Herts claims for a penalty were waved away by the referee though.
Unfortunately Old Herts were caught with their trousers down, almost on the mark of half time when disregarding the old maxim of “play the way you’re facing” the ball was given away on the half way line allowing the Thundridge forward to run on unopposed and slide the ball passes the hapless Bolton.
Old Herts Athletic 1 Thundridge Reserves 1
The second half started with some sustained Thundridge pressure and a scramble in the Old Herts penalty area was only resolved by a good Bolton save. Old Herts came back strongly though and a Dylan header went just wide.
Christian, becoming more influential in the second half made a strong run down the right and he fed the ball to Rob Burman overlapping from full-back before the move broke down and Thundridge launched a counter attack.
Chris Burman won the ball in midfield and passed the ball onto Want, whose shimmy let Matthews in and his low shot unerringly found the back of the net on 55 minutes.
Old Herts Athletic 2 Thundridge Reserves 1
Thundridge to their credit refused to lie down and it needed two crunching tackles from Rob Burman and a save from Bolton to keep them at bay. Want forced a corner for Old Herts and Matthews set up Christian for a shot on goal before Chris Burman and Christian combined to put Matthews in on goal.
A Thundridge through ball almost led to an equaliser but Bolton pulled off a fine save diving low to his left.
A purple patch for Old Herts now developed and from a good intervention from Matt Reeves, Rob Christian from the left curled his shot around the Thundridge keeper to find the back of the net on 70 minutes.
Old Herts Athletic 3 Thundridge Reserves 1
A Thundridge breakaway resulted in their shot going wide, before Christian in a left midfield position (does his versatility know no bounds?) slid the ball through to Want and his low shot increased Old Herts lead on 75 minutes.
Old Herts Athletic 4 Thundridge Reserves 1
And that really was it. Thundridge launched the ball several times into the Old Herts penalty area, but couldn’t score from the scrambles that developed and the game came to a close with Old Herts on the attack.
A hard fought, but well deserved victory for the Old Herts team!
