26 January 2011

Football was back at last and supporters from both clubs gathered to see the first league match since November.  But the weather didn’t respond to the occasion and a grey, drizzly afternoon set the tone for a less than inspiring derby.

Ware, in particular were guilty of failing to come out of hibernation fully awake.  They played some good stuff but seemed to have forgotten what the point of it all was and chances were wasted.  There was no such problem for the home side who seized on some slack defending to claim the points with something to spare.

With new signing Lee Brennan making his debut in midfield a compensating factor for the unavailable Sam Berry and Danny Roles Ware started well and had a number of chances to take the lead.  But it was Cheshunt who showed them how it should be done on 16 minutes when Nick Thorogood’s shot across the box found the bottom corner of the Ware net.

The rest of the half was one of frustration for Ware as nothing they tried seemed to come to fruition and but for one finger tip save by Obey Murefu things might have been worse at half time.

They started the second half clearly with a Tony Faulkner dressing down still in their ears.  But again it was Cheshunt who were to make the breakthrough two minutes in when Darrell Cox hit a screamer from some way out into Murefu’s top right corner.  It was a great way to mark his 150^th goal for Cheshunt.

To be fair Ware recovered well from this set back and continued to have the better of things until Ryan Wade was upended in the box and converted the penalty on the hour mark.  If there was going to be another goal Ware looked the most likely side to get it but Cox wasn’t finished with them.

He was given too much room and time five minutes later and slotted the ball off a post into the diagonally opposite corner of the goal from his first effort.

Still Ware did not give up but the game was lost and trickled away from them into the darkening evening until Mr Evetts blew the final whistle without, possibly to most people’s relief, appearing to add any time.

Ware:  Murefu, Clemo, Sargent, Turpin, J Berry, Ruff, Marshall, Brennan (Rose 62 mins), Wade, Mitchell, Karagul.  Subs not used: Burton, Price, Colman, Killingback