Pringle Can
In driving rain and with the pitch a veritable quagmire, Balliol and Hertford contested a tight and hard-fought match. Balliol, in the midst of the relegation battle sorely needed maximum points from a Hertford side to whom they lost heavily earlier this season.
This time Balliol were blessed with a full strength team and perhaps even more fortunately a proper goalkeeper, albeit one encased in what Hertford captain Ben Cockbain was moved to term "concrete trousers". These rainsoaked breeches proved no hindrance to his early exertions, however, and such Hertford optimism was soon dashed by a series of stops by the keeper.
Balliol had much of the early play as both sets of players struggled to cope with the wet conditions and deterioration in the state of the pitch. Such initial superiority led only to shots from distance by captain Laurie Keel and Balliol's creative midfield was soon tempered by a biting performance from a committed Hertford.
The first half degenerated into a sequence of scrappy moves, with Hertford perhaps most unlucky when, after Randman's raking ball landed perfectly at the feet of Hamill, the striker was unable to find a teammate. Erratic decision-making by the assisstant referees also cost both sides dearly, with Balliol's Richie Cunningham and Hertford frontman Vital harshly done by when through on goal.
Both defences acquitted themselves well against a series of counter-attacks, as the ball was pumped from end to end.
Evans and Ribaro engaged in a tussling encounter in the middle of the park and it was the Hertford man's sterling performance that saw his side gain the upper hand in possession by the end of the first half.
A scoreless draw was certainly a fair result at that stage and the second half started in much the same vein. The Catte Street men were the livelier side but were unable to capitalise in the face of dogged tackling by Charlie Horne and Sam Illott. Balliol, seeing their opponents falter, seemed ever more keen to attack. Hertford on the other hand after their initial fervour were running out of steam and required the introduction of Cassell and Rodgers up front to bolster their performance.
The imposing Balliol rearguard were forced into mistakes and several chances fell to the onrushing Hertford midfielders with Cook particularly guilty of spurning opportunities to open the scoring.
A deserved Hertford goal finally arrived with ten minutes remaining when a penetrating thrust down the left hand side saw a cross swept into the Balliol box. Marc Rodgers pounced and although off balance managed to loop the ball over the outstretched arms of the unfortunate Tom Pringle in the Balliol goal.
Almost immediately afterwards Deoh had an opportunity to extend Hertford's lead but steered the ball wide of the post from a difficult angle.
Content with a one goal advantage Hertford then sat back allowing Balliol to claw their way into the match. Ribaro came heart-stoppingly close with a powerful free kick before creating the chance of the match when he released Cunningham only for the forward to fire wide from short range, emphasing that this just wasn't going to be a happy day for Balliol.
As the game moved to completion Balliol bombarded the Hertford goal but were unable to break down a defence which was defiantly resilient under pressure.
The game ended with Hertford's slim advantage still intact, a result which on the balance was the correct one although Laurie Keel was not disappointed by his team's performance: "Our strong defensive performance can be attributed to the fact that we were simply doing a lot of the old-fashioned things well, we kicked the ball, we headed it and gave it the full gun, we needed the points but on the day were simply unlucky."
Hertford have moved back into contention for second place, Balliol are now standing nearer the edge of the daunting precipice of relegation.
14th Feb 2002