Harrow regained the form shown two weeks ago at Beaconsfield with a storming first-half attacking display, followed by a gutsy rearguard action in the second half, to see off third-place Chesham and gain a vital three points.
Steve Baker made one change from Saturday’s starting line-up, with Imran Uche returning after illness, again as a centre-back. This allowed Isiah Noel-Williams back to a midfield berth. The man to drop to the bench was James Ewington, something that would have been unthinkable at the start of the season but reflective of the little hot-shot’s awful form of the last few weeks. Kamon-Sherell Assidjo moved across to lead the line, with Kai Omoko Brosnan supporting him. Uche took the captain’s armband in the absence of Ewington and the injured Shaun Preddie.
On a still, chilly evening, Harrow attacked the school end, but it was the Generals who threatened first, Charlie Taylor having to punch clear Gallimore’s dangerous cross from under his own bar. Borough began to threaten and Assidjo saw his left-foot drive deflected past the post. The Chesham defence scrambled the ball clear after a lovely left-wing move involving Ahmet Biler, Brosnan and Noel-Williams, and Assidjo then won a tackle and saw his shot blocked. Billy Leonard motored onto a pass in the inside-right channel and hit an angled drive that, too, was blocked. Harrow went in front in the 25th minute as Assidjo again won a tackle, and sent Brosnan racing through the middle to lift the ball over the outrushing Beasant.
A defender blocked George Moore’s vicious left-footer, Chesham threatening at the other end with a near-post corner that was deflected past the post. Oliyide shot wide, and Clayton’s bending effort went narrowly past the upright. Biler and Leonard combined on the left, sending Brosnan to the byline for a low cross that just lacked a finishing touch. Uche then stormed forward from the half-way line, Leonard and Moore working the ball back to him as he entered the box, his left-foot shot going wide. As the half neared its end, Taylor pulled off a wonderful full-length diving save to turn Casey’s header round the post, before Leonard flicked Moore’s low cross past the near post. The half was one minute into stoppage-time when Uche found Brosnan on the left wing. He got past Prosper, ran on into the box and hit a low drive that Beasant ought to have stopped, but the ball went ‘through’ the keeper and in.
The second half opened with Moore driving a low cross that Beasant palmed out, Brosnan working the ball to Assidjo whose shot was blocked. The game changed in the 61st minute when Gibbons tried his luck from range, and Taylor made a dreadful error, merely helping the shot into the net. And yet Harrow might have immediately regained their two-goal cushion, Moore motoring to the right-hand by-line, crossing deep for Brosnan to return to the middle, Assidjo meeting it with a poor connection that allowed Beasant to save. Taylor made a good diving save from Clayton that will have helped restore hisconfidence, and Edwards fired wide after a Harrow clearance rebounded back off Noel-Williams. Moore, looking his old self, and Leonard exchanged passes and the former shot across goal. Casey headed wide from a left-wing cross, before Uche made a brilliant tackle to stop Oliyide, but the attack continued and Taylor saved well from Sutherland.
Harrow would have wrapped up the points had Montel Brown been a little more alert when Beasant spilled Leonard’s shot, Prosper getting to the loose ball just in front of him. Prosper was then in action at the other end, sending a bicycle kick over the bar. Taylor made a double save from a Connors free-kick and a follow-up shot, Connors sent another effort over and, in the final action of seven minutes’ stoppage-time, Casey sent a header wide, kneeling in disbelief with his head in his hands long after the final whistle was blown by Mr Bloxham, an excellent referee who let a lively game flow without the need for constant card production.
The win lifted to Harrow to points-per-games parity, eleven from eleven, a long way from the two from seven that had been the case three weeks ago. A run of three away games looms but first, there’s another home fixture this Saturday, when Plymouth Parkway, now bottom-of-the-table, make the long journey to The Rogers Family Stadium.
Attendance: 173
Result: Harrow Borough 2-1 Chesham Utd
