Match Report: The Hills Have Eyes: A nightmare in The Chilterns

Berkhamsted 3-0 Uxbridge

Berkhamsted is a pleasant market town in Hertfordshire, nestling in the Chiltern Hills - quintessentially English one might say. Its railway station has a fast frequent service into London, with 4 trains every hour - why am I telling you this you may wonder - partly because Uxbridge were keen to escape this horror show as quickly as possible and the station was only a few steps behind one goal, and partly because I am desperately trying to fill some space in this report - in a match everyone from Honeycroft will want to move on from as quickly as possible.

There were some changes in the line up from Saturday's disappointing defeat at home to Plymouth, with a 5-3-2 formation. Bernie Tanner came in at the back, Toby Nnadozie was in midfield, and with George Moore sidelined with injury Ada Okorogheye and Bill Montague led the line. There was little to note from the visitors in the first half, Jose Sani going close for the home side in the 9th minute but pulling his shot just wide of the near post. On 22 minutes Uxbridge did force a corner with their first foray into the Berkhamsted penalty box, unfortunately the corner fell invitingly for the home side, and they broke away at pace - with only a CJ Fearn foul bringing down Michael Harding as he looked to get a shot away preventing Uxbridge conceding. The reprieve was short-lived though as barely two minutes later another good break at pace this time on the left hand side, saw a low cross find Sani in space and he slid in at the far post to give the comrades a deserved lead. Just before the break it should have been two, but Marco Underwood was quickly out of goal to block Ryan Blake’s shot as once again Uxbridge were unable to cope with the Berkhamsted attack. It was a relief to hear the half time whistle and only be one down.

HT 0-1

Danny Edwards made some tweaks at the break with Frank Keita replacing Bernie Tanner & Kyle Bailey replacing Jordan Stepney to revert to a 4-4-2 formation. By now the heavens had opened and the goalmouth was quickly becoming a mudbath - not that Uxbridge appeared in any danger of getting close to that part of the pitch anytime soon. There were tentative signs as the half wore on that Uxbridge could get back into the game, when a corner fell to Frank Keita, whose deft lob beat Hubert Graczyk in the Berkhamsted goal, but also went over the bar. With The Reds unable to muster a shot, you always felt one more goal for the Comrades would be enough, and it duly arrived on 67 minutes when JJ Lacey waltzed through some powder puff defending into the penalty box, and laid the ball off to Adam Watkins - who was brought down - with Lacey himself stepping up to smash the penalty home. Ten minutes later Michael Harding rounded off the scoring for the home side as Watkins and Lacey combined again to set him up at the near post. Uxbridge’s first shot on target came on 80 minutes! - when substitute Dan Hector cut inside on the edge of the box, and curled a fine shot goalwards, which Graczyk did well to tip over the bar. There was time for a very late shot from Josh Adepoju at the near post, which Graczyk did well to block at the near post - by then though it was all too little too late and Berkhamsted ran out deserved winners.

With Uxbridge comfortably beaten, questions will now be asked about their ability to remain at Step 3, with one win in their last twelve games something has to change for them to get out of this rut and pull away from the bottom four. It doesn’t get any easier though with a trip to Yate next Saturday - those looking for positive omens should note that it was the home match against Yate that started this downward spiral, so where better to turn it around.

Come on you Reds

FT 0-3

Att: 280

Uxbridge: Underwood, Tanner (Keita), Bocarro, Fearn, Stepney (Bailey), Nnadozie (Nwachuku), Perez-Duah, Rush, Okorogheye (Adepoju), Montague (Hector), Boorn