Harlow Town (1) 1 Dadson 32
Tonbridge (0) 0
Attendance: 286
Entrance: £8 Senior
Programme: £1
Mileage: 132/5,761
New Ground: 302
This was my first visit to Harlow Town and found it a well appointed facility with a modern 500-seat main stand and a covered terrace on the opposite side. Of the 3G surfaces I have seen this season, this one had the most unnatural bounce, far too high in my opinion. But that said, it cannot be excused for visitors poor showing.
It took until the 79th minute for Tonbridge to ask the Harlow goalkeeper, David Hughes, to lay a serious glove on the ball. Not that the hosts were that much more of an attacking force, thereby contributing to the lack of entertainment.
The opening 20 minutes set the template for the rest of the match. Harlow attacked but without any great quality whilst their visitors were struggling to string a couple of decent passes together. Mario Noto forced Anthony Di Bernardo into a save at his near post after five minutes and at the other end, a shot from Mitchell Nelson and headers from Tom Parkinson and Nathan Elder all cleared the crossbar.
A long throw from Luke Blewden was headed wide of the post from Elder and Harlow swept upfield to opening the scoring. From the goal kick, the ball was partially returned into the midfield area from where Noto intercepted and suddenly the ball was in between the Tonbridge central defenders for Junior Dadson to run onto and score with a shot that went in off the left hand post.
Tonbridge saw a Nelson header from a Nick Wheeler corner cleared from in front of the goal line after 36 minutes and a identical occurrence brought the same outcome just on the break. Between the two Tonbridge efforts Jared Small brought a save from Di Bernardo low to his left.
At the start of the second period the sun had dipped below the stand and the temperature fell away very quickly. Sadly the game disappeared with it.
Mid-way through the half, Noto, head and shoulders the best player on the pitch, played in Small but Di Bernardo was quick to smother his effort and then, with 11 minutes remaining, substitute Ugo Udoji planted a header from a corner that actually asked Hughes to make a save.
A ridiculous incident in the final minute of regular time just about summed up the frustrating nature of the game. Tom Phipp, on as a 62nd minute substitute for Wheeler, was caught late as he delivered a long punt into the box. As the ball ran loose, the referee opted to bring the play back thus denying the visitors a scoring opportunity. While Jack Parter waited to take the free kick, water was childishly squirted from the Harlow dug-out, this was noticed by the Tonbridge dug-out and a protracted fracas was the result. It took a full five minutes for the referee to decide what action to take, a yellow card for a player from each side. If only the referee had allowed the play to continue, none of the nonsense would have happened and Tonbridge might even have scored.
The games in hand that Tonbridge had on those above are beginning to ebb away and Steve McKimm's side desperately need a run of results or this season of much promise could well just slip away.
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