Match Report

Hendon
2
Bromley
1
Date:
Saturday 03 September 2005
Competition:
Isthmian League Premier Division
Attendance:
179
Venue:
TBA

Match Report

Hendon made it two wins in three days and climbed nine places in the table as they overcame Bromley at Claremont Road on Saturday lunchtime.

The Greens had been forced into a change with René Street's unavailability, Billy Matthews making his debut in his place, but James Parker came in at Iain Duncan's expense, while Ross Pickett filled the attacking midfield role instead of Mark Burgess.

Whether it was the early kick-off, the calm after the storming victory on Wednesday night or the unusually sunny day, there was a slightly strange atmosphere as the game got under way. For dozen minutes, nothing of note happened at either end, until Belal Aiteouakrim got himself in space and fired a drive that Andy Walker tipped over the crossbar.

Although Hendon began to take the upper hand, Bromley were not without chances, and Dave King made routine saves from Des Boateng and Wade Falana before the Greens took an 18th-minute lead.

Eugene Ofori and Parker combined on the right side and the former went around Mark Willy inside the Bromley box. He had a number of options - both John Frendo and Aiteouakrim were pleading for a pass - but he chose instead to lay a short ball into the path of Danny Julienne, whose first-time shot rocketed into the net, despite the best efforts of Walker who got a solid hand to the ball.

Buoyed by the goal, Hendon were now on top and it was no surprise when they doubled their lead. It came in the 29th-minute, and although was courtesy of an error by Walker, the skill displayed by John Frendo was nonetheless top-drawer.

Forced to race out of his box to deal with a through ball, Walker succeeded only in kicking ball to Frendo 40 yards from the Bromley goal. Frendo controlled the ball, beat the desperate attempt by Barry Gardner to block the shot and sent a lob towards the unguarded goal. Walker raced back but was helpless as the ball bounced two yards from the goal and flew into the roof of the net.

King had to go down sharply at his near post to keep out a curled free-kick from Gardner after 36 minutes and, three minutes later, Parker was well positioned on his post to block a header from Boateng.

Aiteouakrim was replaced by Jimmy Froud at half-time and within 20 seconds of the restart, he took too long over a shot after Frendo and Ofori had ripped open the Bromley defence which had replaced Steve Potterill with Gavin McGowan.

Walker made a good save on this occasion, but he was no more than a spectator, 90 seconds later, when Froud had a second chance to sidefoot his first Hendon goal. However, Tutu Henriques flung himself at the ball and took it away from Froud as the Hendon player made contact.

Froud went down in obvious agony and although he was able to continue, he was little more than a passenger and was eventually replaced by Kieran Gallagher. Bromley, meanwhile, had made all their changes as they tried to repeat their feat of coming from a long way back as they had on Bank Holiday Monday against Folkestone Invicta.

With 11 minutes of normal time remaining, the Lilywhites got their lifeline, Nic McDonnell scoring with a header, although King had valid claims for a foul as he was barged out of the way trying to reach the ball.

Hendon, meanwhile, continued to waste excellent chances to make the game safe, so hearts were collectively in mouths when McDonnell failed to take two opportunities to equalise.

Six minutes of stoppage time added to Hendon's discomfort, but it was the Greens who were on the attack when the final whistle blew.

"We made it extremely difficult for ourselves," said manager Gary McCann. We had three three-on-ones - not one-on-ones or two-on-ones - and didn't take any of them. If we had been clinical in our finishing we could have won very easily."

Report by David Ballheimer

Hendon

1
Dave King
2
James Parker
3
Danny Murphy
4
Ross Pickett
5
Billy Matthews
6
Steve McGrath
7
James Burgess
8
Danny Julienne
9
Eugene Ofori
10
John Frendo
11
Belal Aite-Ouakrim
12
Kieran Gallagher
14
Mark Burgess
15
Jimmy Froud
16
Rob Courtnage
17
Danny O'Sullivan

Match Events

18''
Danny Julienne
29''
John Frendo
46''
Jimmy Froud replaced Belal Aite-Ouakrim
Gavin McGowan replaced Steve Potterill
46''
Sam Wood replaced Des Boateng
55''
Henry Darko replaced Joe Vines
60''
72''
Kieran Gallagher replaced Jimmy Froud
Nic McDonnell
79''
82''
Mark Burgess replaced Danny Julienne

Bromley

1
Andy Walker
2
Steve Potterill
3
Mark Willy
4
Tutu Henriques
5
Joe Vines
6
Des Boateng
7
Fraser Logan
8
Barry Gardner
9
Nic McDonnell
10
Wade Flana
11
Allan McLeod
12
Adolf Amokao
14
Sam Wood
15
Andrew Julius
16
Gavin McGowan
17
Henry Darko