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Broxbourne Borough V & E	vs	First Team
0		1

Location	Goffs Lane
Date	Aug 10, 2010
Time	7:45 pm
Type	Spartan South Midlands League
Game Notes	Borough secured three welcome early season points from their local derby game at Goffs Lane but had to maintain their concentration for the full ninety minutes and were often at full stretch in a game which could have gone either way. Broxbourne enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges but wasted several half-chances before Haringey got into their stride and the game then became a very even affair although Haringey created only one really promising opportunity which they too wasted. An injury to Andrew Julius after 20 minutes brought on Tolu Popoola as an early substitute and Andreas Loizou was moved into central defence where he gave an assured performance in his unfamiliar role in tandem with Nick Nicou to restrict the danger posed by the lively Broxbourne attack spearheaded by former Borough stalwart Murat Karagul and also featuring flying winger Bradley Drisdale, another ex-Borough regular of a few years ago. But Borough’s star performer was Demetri Stratis who coped admirably with the speed of Drisdale and found plenty of time to power forward himself and had little trouble in winning headers and successfully tackling taller players. Broxbourne seemed certain to take the lead a few minutes from the interval when a cross from the right was met by Karagul only a few yards from goal but Borough ‘keeper Nick Christofi somehow managed to throw himself into the path of the ball for a fine block. In first half stoppage time Broxbourne keeper Allan Buck raced from his line to his left to intercept Borough striker Richard Worrell as he chased a long through ball and clipped his heels to bring him down a yard or so in the area and Worrell picked himself up to smash home the ball hard and low to the ‘keepers right from the spot. Haringey enjoyed a purple patch after the interval and created many chances all of which were wasted. One low cross shot from the right was kicked off the line and when a corner created a prolonged scramble in the goalmouth the ball somehow stayed out. When they did put the ball in the net it was correctly ruled off-side. During this period Broxbourne’s only effort of note had been a massive cross-cum shot from way out on the left which eluded Christofi’s desperate backwards leap but scraped the far post and rolled out wide away from danger. Broxbourne stepped up a gear and Haringey were no longer creating chances of their own so easily but it seemed that the advantage must have moved in Haringey’s favour when Albert Bostock was sent off 15 minutes from time for a second booking. But this proved to be far from the case as Broxbourne, with nothing to lose, powered forward repeatedly. The introduction of Broxbourne substitute Lawal Alhadi increased the pressure on the Borough defence and only a superb tip over save by Christofi a few minutes from time denied him an equaliser when he powered in a cross from the left only a few yards out. Before that Borough’s lead had been preserved twice in the space of a minute by the intervention of each post. But Borough’s defence retained its composure dealing successfully with the stream of corners, crosses and long high balls launched at it to preserve the lead. Borough squad Nick Christofi, Andreas Loizou, Demetri Stratis, Andrew Julius (Tolu Popoola), Nick Nicou, Marvin Walker, Theo Charalambos, David Boal, Richard Worrell, Mario Georgiou, Ross Jones (Patrick Djuma) Unused substitutes:- Guy Djedje, Ben Hall (GK)