Ware 3 Berkhamsted 3
Southern League Div 1 (Central).
9th April 2022
Att: 190
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Sensational goals are not enough as Berkhamsted come back from the dead.

As with the Bedford game so with this one as Ware surrendered points by conceding in added time. Yet unlike that other game there could be no complaints about this result. Irritation maybe, as two soft goals kept Berkhamsted in the hunt for a point whilst Xavier Comas Leon pulled off some great saves to deny a sometimes rampant Ware. There is of course no rule against having your keeper play well; trust me, I’ve looked it up, it’s perfectly legal.

However, after four games without conceding it was disappointing to be caught out three times at the back. Still, it was that sort of game with Berkhamsted conceding three goals in a league game for only the second time this season.

And what goals they were. Tom Bruno was sitting out this game, the second of a three match suspension, frustrated perhaps but content maybe that his goal against Kempston back in November was a shoo in for goal of the season. Come half time there were three additional contenders for that informal award.

The first came after twelve minutes. Liam Hope was on the end of a ball up the Ware left. Reading the situation, he gave Liam Dulson a shouted warning of what he was going to do before heading the ball in towards the middle. Dulson took heed of the “heads up” and followed Hope’s pass before blasting it on the half volley into the top of the net from at least 25 yards.

Eight minutes later it was two nil as Leigh Rose played the ball to Robbie Buchanan who laid it into the path of Taufee Skandari. Wearing the number ten in this game, Skandari took the ball forward a few steps and then unleashed a shot from outside the penalty area. It clipped the underside of the bar, bounced down leaving spectators momentarily unsure if it was in before bouncing up, still with enough energy to bulge the top of the net to confirm that yes, it was a goal.

Two goals whose stand out feature was the power of the shots were now matched by one where the build up and execution were more to the fore. With ten minutes to half time James Mulley, who had one of his best games for the club, took a free kick from wide on the left. It found Hope in the Berkhamsted area whose short pass to Buchanan was back heeled further into the path of Dave Kendall. His side-foot shot was superbly executed into the top of the net.

It was just as well because Ware had conceded their first goal in six hours and thirty-four minutes of play shortly before. Following a scramble in their own six yard area that might have seen another Ware goal Berkhamsted went forward. They were stopped in the final third but the ball was not cleared properly and fell to Jonathan Lacey. He squared it to James Verney who, with time and space on his side, scored easily past a stranded Brad Robinson.

Verney had a similar opportunity on the stroke of half time but Robinson saved well at the end of the best 45 minutes seen at Wodson Park for some time.

Ware continued the search for goals in the second half with defenders ready to move up for corners and free kicks. But it was Skandari trying his luck early on from the left with a stinging shot that Leon couldn’t hold before coming in from the right with another powerful strike that was on target before being deflected for a corner by a defender.

It was from the corner that Berkhamsted mounted an attack that ended with a ball out to Liam Brooks. He worked his way into the penalty area closely shadowed by Marcus Milner but still got a shot away. Either the ball took a deflection or Robinson was unsighted but the ball found the net to give the visitors hope that they might yet get something out of the game.

First though they had to stop Ware scoring again and for that they can thank Leon. If he had had trouble holding on to some of Ware’s earlier strikes, he was adept at palming others away. He denied Skandari just past the hour mark whilst Hope’s glancing header from Skandari’s cross with ten minutes to go looked a goal all over until Leon dived to tip it round the post.

Even so, the keeper was something of a spectator when Mulley came powering forward from deep before shooting for the top corner of the net. The ball struck Leon’s left post and went across the six yard area before being cleared to Dulson whose shot was narrowly wide.

There were other close calls but Ware couldn’t convert them and with that the visitors mounted a final period of pressure. Robinson made one excellent save to keep his team ahead but in the 93rd minute Ware were undone. Berkhamsted’s late surge was rewarded when John Lacey slotted the ball home.

Speaking afterwards manager Paul Halsey was philosophical about the result saying that he would have settled for a draw before kick-off. That said, to lose two points so late on after having so many chances can feel like a defeat. In which case Ware can console themselves that Hertford did them a favour by winning at North Leigh. With a significantly better goal difference than the Oxfordshire side, victories in two of their last three games will ensure Ware a place in the play-offs.

Ware: Brad Robinson, Marcus Milner, Chris Arthur, Leigh Rose (Louis Rose 81mins), Jay Lovell, Dave Kendall, Robbie Buchanan, James Mulley, Liam Hope, Taufee Skandari, Liam Dulson. Unused subs: Josh Williams, Rechan Esprit, Albert Adu, Tyriq Hunte.