The Lincoln Green’s first game of the New Year was always going to say a lot about how the second half of the season was going to go. Would they win and start to climb the table (as their talent suggests) or would they embark on a struggle against relegation (as their footballing brains too often shows)?
The answer to this question was quickly apparent. Barnes had played the ball forward to Jowitt, who was fouled about 25 yards out from the Ware Warriors goal. Ben Want took on the responsibility and hit an unstoppable shot passed the Warriors keeper to open the scoring on just 3 minutes.
Old Herts Athletic 1 Ware Warriors 0
Rob Burman was required to chest the ball away from defence to find Ramthor. He played the ball up to an overlapping Moss, but finally the ball was overrun by Jowitt down the left wing.
The first corner conceded by Old Herts proved problematic on 8 minutes however. The ball was delivered into the six yard box, not one Green head could get to the ball and Bolton in goal didn’t punch the ball away, leaving the Ware Warriors forward the opportunity to head home.
Old Herts Athletic 1 Ware Warriors 1
The Warriors were now having the best of things, although from a further corner Bolton came out confidently this time to catch the ball. They then had a shot from 20 yards that struck the post fiercely low down and they were playing all the football at this stage. Jowitt had to work back hard to concede a further corner that was headed wide.
Rob Burman, under pressure at right back defended well, by staying on his feet as the Ware winger ran at him, allowing Will Barnes (who played well all game) to sweep up behind.
Simon Brooks intelligently played the ball along the ground, out of defence to Chris Burman and in turn he pushed the ball wide to his brother. The ball went forward to Christian on the right wing, whose cross unfortunately went wide.
Barnes, Jowitt and Want now combined slickly as the Lincoln Greens started to call the tune and a long shot from Chris Burman was turned around the post for a corner, which Konnor Smith could only hit wide.
Ware Warriors had a dubious penalty claim waved away by the referee and Rob Burman took a kick in the head for his efforts before Brooks cleared the ball.
From a Jowitt throw in, Want neatly chipped the ball in for Smith, whose header was pushed wide.
Ramthor had to defend a Warriors through ball and he then set Moss away down the left. A Ware Warriors attack developed that resulted in a scramble in the Old Herts six yard box and a corner was headed wide, before a move involving Chris Burman, Smith, Jowitt and Want ended a evenly contested first half.
There were no changes to the line-up for the second half and Christian was quickly called into action clearing a header from a Warriors corner off the goal line. The best move the match developed on 50 minutes, Barnes sending an excellent ball up to Christian. His run to the bye line and pulled back cross found Jowitt in the place all good goal scorers head for - the six yard box – and he’s deadly from that distance!
Old Herts Athletic 2 Ware Warriors 1
The game should now have been dead and buried two minutes later in the Greens’ favour when Chris Burman played the ball to Jowitt, he found Rob Burman, who layed it off to Smith. From around 20 yards and with his weaker right foot he hit a screamer passed the Warriors keeper, who was left vainly just grabbing at air!
Old Herts Athletic 3 Ware Warriors 1
Ware were still forcing corners though and these proved dangerous throughout the game and they had a long shot that forced Bolton to push the ball over the bar. By this time Park had replaced Christian and Tanner had come on for Jowitt.
Moss and Tanner quickly combined to get Tanner into the game and then after Barnes was forced to cover at the back again he gave the ball to Want, who also found Tanner. Ware Warriors had another header go wide (which was a bit of a theme for them in this match) when on 68 minutes a speculative low shot from the edge of the penalty area, was not gathered cleanly by the normally sure handed Bolton and the ball just about managed to trickle over the line to make for an interesting last 20 minutes!
Old Herts Athletic 3 Ware Warriors 2
Sensing that they might just get something from a game in which at one stage they were well behind in the Warriors increased the pressure. They had a “goal” disallowed for pushing, a shot go wide and then as the game went into the final 5 minutes goalkeeper Bolton redeemed himself for his earlier mishap by pushing a point blank shot to his right away from the goal to safety.
Old Herts managed to get some grip over the last few minutes Moss and Chris Burman combined to set Ramthor on a mazy run forcing a Warriors defender to trip him and thereby gaining a valuable free kick.
Old Herts just about earned the points as they consistently looked to pass the ball. They now lie fifth in the league with third place up for grabs. With the league leaders put of the cup there is cause for optimism for a cup run. All this depends however on the availability of key players to allow consistency of selection. We shall see
