Lazy Saturday Afternoon

Rifat 84,86








Looking forward to this game, you would have thought the result would be a formality. Potters Bar Town had previously lost their last 6 home games, whilst the Blues were unbeaten this year, winning their last 4. With the race for the play-offs hotting up, it was vital that we come away with a positive result.

We got to the ground around 2.30, leaving just enough time for a quick pint in the fairly impressive club house, and also taking the opportunity to speak to a few people from behind the scenes at Wingate (I'll leave the '& Finchley' off from now on, as I'm sure you don't need to be Columbo to know who I mean). 
Looking at the state of the pitch, you knew you weren't going to be in for a game full of free flowing, one-touch football. It was a bubble-wrap textured bog, with large, sporadic, patches of sand, and looked like it had been used in a recreation of the Normandy landings the day before.

As anticipated, the first half was an even, lacklustre, affair, with neither team able to take a foothold. The majority of the play was in the middle of the park, with the odd break into the final third. 
Wingate had a couple of half chances, and looked slightly sharper up front, but a half time score of 0-0 perfectly reflected what was a forgettable 45 minutes.

Wingate started the second half brightly, with Leon Smith having the best chance. Put clean through, and about to pull the trigger, the ball hit one of the 6 million divots and shot into touch.
The game came to life in the 54th minute, when Jake Parratt put Potters Bar 1-0 up, with a cracking shot from 25 yards out, that was harder than a 2 week old sandwich.
The lead, however, only lasted 4 minutes. A long clearance from a debutant (reminder to self - make a note of new players) who had come on for Craig Ellis, found it's way to Chris Chase, who hit the equaliser from just inside the 18 yard box into the bottom corner.

The game settled back into a familiar pattern and, looked like it was heading for a draw. David Laird came on for Leon Smith to add a physical presence, and he immediately shook up the Potters Bar defence.
By this time, the temperature had dropped by what seemed like 30 degrees, and I would soon regret the decision not to bring gloves.
Why? Because in the 84th minute Ahmet Rifat turned and shot, inside the box, from a Laird knockdown to put us 2-1 up. This meant that I had to update Twitter, with a phone slower than a village idiot on Mastermind, and with fingers that were colder than a gravedigger's shovel.
2 minutes later, Rifat scored a virtually indentical goal to put us 3-1 up, and put the result beyond doubt. I still hadn't updated the second goal.
The final whistle brought an end to a fairly tight game, which really could have gone either way.

The Ground
£8 to get in, free for the young 'un
£1.50 for a programme, like a yellow pages with results