Hellenic League
Division 2 South
Saturday 4th January 2020
Kick Off 14.00 Actual 13.59
Hazlemere Sports 3 Taplow United 0, attendance 9
5’ 1-0
53’ 2-0
78’ 3-0
@ The Hazlemere Memorial Hall
Hazlemere Recreation Ground
Amersham Road
Hazlemere
High Wycombe
HP15 7QW
No Admission or Programme.
Today was a rare chance to visit Hazlemere Sports when they were playing first team opposition. The Hellenic League is probably the poorest standard Step 5/6 league in the pyramid, especially when it comes to ground facilities, or more to the point, the lack of. The three divisions which sit at Step 7 level (North, South and West) are really one division too far and are riddled with reserve and development teams. In fact, there are only 15 of the 39 teams at this level that are actually first teams!
Today’s match was 7th versus 11th in the league table. I knew that, at best, part of the pitch would be roped off. It turned out to be down each touch line. Despite there being a social club (there is also tennis and bowls here) it remained closed for the duration and the only toilet was in the team changing rooms. The reputation of the league was summed up by Hazlemere only having the bare 11 players, which is pretty pathetic at this level, although it certainly didn’t affect their performance, even having lost a player to injury around twenty minutes into the first half.
Hazlemere scored after five minutes, when Taplow failed to clear a corner and the ball was forced in from close range. They could have added more, but for poor finishing. They thought they had added a second goal, but it was disallowed for a foul on the ‘keeper (correct decision from what I saw), but the female Referee was ‘unsighted’ and missed the incident, eventually going with the opinion of the Taplow ‘Club Linesman’ to chalk it off. Shortly afterwards, Hazlemere lost a man injured, so were left to play the final 70 minutes a man short, as they had no substitutes!
It remained 1-0 at the break, but Taplow should have been level, having had an effort cleared off the line, the ‘keeper well beaten, but a defender went full stretch with a diving header, clearing the ball as we approached the ninth minute of stoppage time. The expected comeback during the second half never materialised. Instead, it was the 10 men who finished as deserved winners. A shot from the edge of the box made it 2-0 early in the second half and Taplow looked done. A shocking miss with the goal gaping should have made it three, before a one-two on the edge of the box was finished emphatically to round off what turned out to be a very comfortable 3-0 win.
