Harpenden Rovers 3 Knobs 5 - report by John Dory

It’s the eternal debate – the answer to the economic problem of scarce resources and infinite wants.  Command vs. Free Market – equity vs. efficiency.  What is it to be?  It was the key debate after the game and it took away some of the attention from Dave’s magnificent 4 goal haul, the return of Trevor and the way we nearly snatched defeat from certain victory.  But what is it to be?  A league game where we desperately wanted to win but no man creates victory and no man creates defeat.  Equity vs. Efficiency.  A tough question and one no government has answered but can we answer it at Vets football.  We need to check the constitution.

We were outstanding in the first half.  We should have been six or seven up.  There was some beautiful football being played with some great inter-linking between Ali, Darren, Joel in the centre of the park, Dave (the fulcrum up front) and Richard and Gavin on the wings.  We had plenty of chances but only two were taken by half time – Dave slotted in at the back post after their keeper failed to collect and Gavin banged it in off the cross bar after Ali had teased their defence in the penalty box.  We let in a sloppy goal but it was hard to blame Trevor with the sun streaming in his eyes.  Dave blamed Tony for giving the free-kick away in the first place.  Unity is strength.  As Blair used to say ‘We’re all in this Together’ or was that Cameron?  You can barely tell them apart.  So at half-time we were 2-1 up and cruising.  Defensively we looked solid with Twiggy playing well at left back and Chris Wilson sweeping behind Tony.  Chairman Al wasn’t doing too badly either at right back and all was hunky-dory.

Substitutions (it was argued) changed the game but some could argue it was their change of formation and personnel.  Harpenden put away their passing game (they know they couldn’t compete) and started to lump it forward.  And it worked.  We looked a bit more hurried despite scoring a third with Dave sweeping in a lovely second.  This is not Dave Jordan by the way.   He came on huffing and puffing on the left flank and it was his throw on that led to the fifth goal.  This is new boy Dave who looks a very composed finisher.  We certainly need one of those!  Brendan came on and off and was only the man in the team to be part of a clean sheet.  Everyone else let in two more goals.  Both from bouncing balls and crosses in the box.  It was hectic stuff and Trevor saved our bacon with a save from a free-kick that he tipped on to the post.  At 3-3 more substitutions were made and eventually we won the game with two more goals from Dave.  One was set up by Joel with a lovely cross from the wing and the other was set up by Ali with a bit of help from Chris Cox, I think.

And that’s how it ended.  5-3.  Race for top scorer is on.  Andy must be looking over his shoulder.  There is a new man in town and he’s called Dave.  But not Jordan.  And he doesn’t have red boots.  Showers were warm, the pub was lovely, the bacon butties were great and it was all rather convivial as you would expect when visiting Harpenden.  No doubt the debate will rage on about equity vs. efficiency but for the time being we’ve concretised our position at the top end of the table and long may this continue.