Harrow Hammer Hawks
Harrow (7) vs. Oxford Hawks (1)
After a summer that has seemed to last an eternity, this weekend saw Harrow’s Men’s 1’s return to
league action against Oxford Hawks 5’s in the first game of the season in torrid weather conditions.
With Captain Tim Marshall returning to league action at 100% fitness following his injury last season
and with Coach Jatin Patel on the sidelines, their words were simple, in a new division, we were
looking to start strongly and quickly, solid in defence and ruthless in attack.
A slight delay due to Oxford being late to the pitch only added fuel to an already burning fire for the
Harrow players and as the game began, Oxford really didn’t know what had hit them.
Our first goal of this season came from last season’s top goal scorer Colin Jones, following some
outstanding work on the right flank by Kaz Sunadome and then Govind Grewal beating 2 defenders
inside the D, a cut back pass was slammed into the net to give Harrow the lead. 1-0 Harrow (JONES)
Harrow were on top and Oxford were struggling. The movement of the forwards and passing of
Harman and Jones and James Pym, with pace on the wings forcing the Oxford defence backwards
and Marshall, Nick Fee, Joe Castle Giffin and keeper Peter Walkling breaking down any sporadic
chances Oxford did create on the counter attack, Harrow doubled their advantage, after some nice
one touch passing led to Lendon breaking down the left and into the D before firing a reverse hit
strike into the bottom corner and passed the Oxford keeper. 2-0 Harrow (LENDON)
A midfield battle ensued for the next 10 minutes with neither team able to take control and chances
at a premium, before a mix up in the Oxford defence led to a foot in the D and following a neat
between Mike Harman, Jones and Nick Lendon, saw the latter provide a cool finish to double the
lead. HALF TIME 3-0 Harrow (LENDON)
Half time proved untimely for Harrow, with the rain coming down and bodies getting cold, we
started slowly; Oxford had a decent spell of chances and after conceding a penalty corner oxford got
a goal back with some good keeping from Walkling unfortunately not enough to stop the ball
deflecting up and over Marshall’s stick on the line. 3-1 Harrow
The goal seemed to wake us up; we came out firing after that and much like the first half pressure
began to tell.
Our fourth goal, scored by Grewal came with Oxford struggling to find a way out from their own free
hit and after some fantastic work from Pym and Harman blocking out the channels before releasing
Grewal to beat his defender and round the keeper before finishing well. 4-1 Harrow (GREWAL)
Harrow’s fifth was again caused by Harrow’s press and Oxford’s inability to clear their lines. Callum
Redpath positioned, well intercepted a ball aimed down the line before beating two defenders and
releasing Jones who himself beat two defenders and rounded the keeper to score and make it 5-1. 51 Harrow (JONES)
With a little over 10 minutes to play Sunadome got himself onto the score sheet, Grewal, starting to
show how dangerous he can be in the D drove hard at the defence and after being pushed wide
picked a great pass out from the baseline across the keeper finding Sunadome at the
back post from a simple tap in. 6-1 Harrow (SUNADOME)
Having put on a man of the match performance, Harman capped his superb game off
by scoring his first of the season, Castle-Giffin producing a sublime pass to split the defence wide
open before Harman unleashed an unstoppable effort into the bottom right passed the keeper. 7-1
Harrow (HARMAN)
FULL TIME 7-1
Team: P Walkling (GK), T Marshall(C), N Fee, J Castle- Giffin, C Jones, M Harman, J Pym, K Sunadome,
C Redpath, J Mansell, N Lendon, G Grewal.
MOM - Mike Harman
DOD – Nick Lendon