Arthurian League

Premier Division

Saturday 16th October 2021

Kick Off 11.00 Actual 11.04

Old Harrovians 2 Old Wykehamists 6, attendance 1

18’ 0-1

23’ 1-1

44’ 1-2

53’ 1-3

63’ 1-4

90’+ 1, 1-5

90’+ 3, 2-5

90’+ 4, 2-6

@ The Philathletic Ground

Whitmore Road

Harrow

HA1 4AQ

No Admission or Programme.

I suppose it was going to happen one day. I finally did a match on a Saturday where I was the only spectator (it’s happened before at a midweek University match I think?). Apart from the Old Wykehamists ‘manager’, that was it, although oddly, there is a post on the Non League Matters forum by someone claiming that they were also at the match. Even the III’s had a ‘crowd’ of 2 for their game versus Old Shirburnians, played on a pitch the other side of the trees, down on a lower plateau to the main pitch. One of them did have the look of a ‘hopper, watching from behind the far goal on the III’s pitch, about 70 yards away. Perhaps it was him? (Edit ; Yes it was him. He has since posted a photo of the III,s match that he watched, plus one of the 1sts match, which was taken from the position where he watched the other game from. In a huge sports field like that, with just three spectators present, it is not hard to work out who is watching which match. Perhaps it takes a little more intelligence to work out which match is being played on which pitch?)

Anyway, as for the match, it was 10th (bottom) versus 3rd in the league table. Old Harrovians had lost all four of their matches so far, failing to score, whilst conceding twenty four goals. Old Wykehamists had two wins and two draws from their four matches.

Despite going behind, Old Harrovians soon levelled the score and were competing very well and were making a real game of it. They were unfortunate to trail 1-2 at the break, but Old Wykehamists had gone close on numerous times in the half, so it perhaps wasn’t too surprising. Eight minutes into the second half it was 1-3, with the OW No.7 completing his hat trick. Ten minutes later he added a fourth to make it 1-4. Twelve minutes from time OW lost a player to injury and with the substitute having already come off injured, had to continue with 10 men. Six minutes later they picked up another injury, which left them with just nine players. It didn’t affect them too much though. Their No.7 broke clear to curl in his fifth goal of the day to make it 1-5 in the first minute of stoppage time. Old Harrovians then volleyed in from a corner to pull it back to 2-5 and there was still time for OW to make it 2-6 in the fourth minute of stoppage time. No prizes for guessing who scored it. Yes, the No.7 to complete his double hat trick. He could easily have scored ten, as he also forced a number of saves from the home ‘keeper and had hit the crossbar with an effort in the first half.

With the game over at 12.45 it left ample time to head off for a second match.