Haringey Borough 0-1 Felixstowe and Walton United: match report
On a cold, wet, and blustery Saturday afternoon at Coles Park, Haringey Borough’s winless streak extended to nine games as they suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to high-flying Felixstowe & Walton United.
Tom Loizou kept an unchanged lineup from the previous 3-3 draw against Redbridge, opting for a 5 at-the-back system. Scott Mitchell, Damilola Taiwo-Pratt, and Ebenezer Addo Kufuor anchored the backline, with captain Tosin Olufemi and Caleb Dennis providing width as wing-backs. Jack West Astuti retained his spot between the sticks, while Georgios Aresti and J’Ardell Stirling formed the midfield duo behind a front three of Joe Waight, Derek Asamoah, and Alfred Bobson-Bawling, who recently returned to the squad.
The start of the match was cagey. The visitors wearing red shirts, black shorts, and red and black socks and kicking towards the car park end dominated the ball, but failed to properly test Astuti. Their number 10, Callum Harrison, showed flashes of danger with a couple of speculative efforts cutting in from the right, but neither shot packed enough power to trouble the keeper. Boro were struggling to create much themselves though, and their task was made more difficult when they were forced into a change on 25 minutes in, with Scott Mitchell being replaced by Olu Durojaiye, causing a reshuffle that pushed Striling back into defence.
The first big chance of the game for Boro came on the 36th minute after a great switch of play out to the left wing for Derek Asamoah. Asamoah whipped a dangerous ball into the centre of the penalty area only to be missed by an audacious overhead kick from Joe Waight and put wide when it eventually fell to a yellow shirt. Boro lived dangerously before half-time with the opposition’s Jordan Matthews curling a low shot just wide of the left-hand post from outside of the penalty area, and J’Ardell Stirling intervened brilliantly to prevent a dangerous cross finding a Felixstowe man in the middle and giving the visitors a lead. The score remained 0-0 until halftime.
Tom Loizou’s men started the second with renewed energy. Bobson Bawling was replaced by Cem Poyraz just after half-time, and he almost made an immediate impact to the scoreline in the 55th minute. Caleb Dennis pulled the ball back into the centre from an overlapping position on the right, and Poyraz was there to meet it, steering a low shot towards the bottom left corner of the opposition net, which was tipped away well by the Felixstowe goalkeeper and Boro were unlucky not to get on the rebound and put themselves ahead. Felixstowe countered well from this chance and had a good effort from their number 9 Rob Harvey well tipped over the bar by Astuti. The tension began to build at Coles Park and tempers flared both on and off the pitch. Felixstowe and Walton’s captain Jack Ainsley escaped punishment after a cynical foul on Aresti around the half-way line and moments later Boro manager Tom Loizou and substitute Tom Boxer were both booked after a confrontation with the Felixstowe bench.
On the pitch Felixstowe started to exhibit more control, their left back Thomas Warren lashed a shot just wide of the right post, and some dangerous corners and free kicks were put just wide of the Boro net. The pressure told eventually though 71 minutes into the match. The goal started with Warren who put a great ball into the box, and although Astuti did well to save the first effort, the ball was followed in by Joshua Hitter who slotted the ball into the bottom left corner of an essentially empty net. Boro tried to rally a response but the stormy conditions played their part as they struggled to create anything of note in the final 20 minutes of the match, their only opportunity came in the 88th minute with a long throw-in being headed over the bar by Cem Poyraz. In the end, they were lucky it was only 1-0, with Rob Harvey spurning a good opportunity on the counter-attack, and some desperate defending by Caleb Dennis also preventing another one-on-one opportunity.
Next up for Haringey Borough is an away match at Witham Town on Saturday 14th December as they look to put this winless run behind them.
