Essex Senior League, Wednesday 18th March
Mile End was the venue for me for a mid march midweek matchup, and it saw fifth placed SOUL Tower Hamlets looking to widen the gap to the chasing pack below the play off places taking on mid table Harwich & Parkeston who were looking for the points to try and reduce the gap to the top ten places.
SOUL begin the evening five points ahead of sixth placed Saffron Walden Town with four games in hand too, so a win would increase that to eight and really strengthen their grip on a top five position, their league form since a heavy loss to now league leaders Great Wakering Rovers in mid December had seen them lose only once in nine league outings, that's four wins and four draws, and one loss.
In contrast 12th placed Harwich were on a run of three losses in four outings, this after going on a four match unbeaten run priot to that, the last four games had all been at home too, so they were probably glad to get away from the Royal Oak for this one and try and avoid another defeat, their last outing did see them gain a point through in a rather entertaining 3-3 draw against another play off chasing side in Barking.
Harwich had led that game 3-1 until they were pegged back and denied in the 99th minute, but that did at least show what the visitors were capable off, so SOUL had to be wary of this, and the opening half hour or so proved this fact as Harwich had four really good chances to take the lead as they were creating any real chances of note, one coming off the bar, hosts keeper Max Pitman had to make a couple of decent saves too, but it was hard to tell who was the play off chasers and who wasn't.
However, twelve minutes before half time SOUL took an opportunity which was helped by some rather careless play from the visitors, a ball forward appeared to see the ball going out for a goal kick and with keeper Brad Cook and a defender looking to usher the ball out to safety, Samir Bihmoutine manged to keep the ball on the pitch, and then squared for Keanu Hill, and although Cook had got back into goal, he could save the effort and SOUL had a lead they scarcely deserved.
It was a lead they had though heading into the break, leaving Harwich scratching their heads somewhat, but the goal was certainly preventable by them, and in the early stages of the second half the game was still very much in the balance, that was until SOUL went on a three goal blitz in a six minute spell around the hour mark to end the game as a contest.
Just before the hour mark a ball smashed across goal hit Shomari Barnwell pretty much on the goal line and went into the net, and then the big striker had another just past the hour mark when he was laid in beautifully before he fired into the bottom corner, and then in the 65th minute Michael Agboola rose to head home a Steven Carvell corner, and SOUL now had a very comfortable 4-0 lead.
The hosts could now cruise to the win although fair play to Harwich they kept plugging away, but they were never going to find a way back into the contest, and SOUL picked up those three points to really cement their place in the top five as it stands, an eight point cushion down to the chasing pack and with games in hand too, and with those below them only having 7 or 8 games to go, it will take a lot for them to replace the sides already in the play off zone.
For Harwich they may well look back to that first half showing and wonder what could have been had they taken their chances, but sloppy play allowed the hosts to get in front and then that purple patch from them in the second half gave the visitors no chance of getting anything in the end, they remain 12th though with a top ten finish in their first season in the division looking slimmer than it was before.
Full time SOUL Tower Hamlets 4 Harwich & Parkeston 0
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