Despite wind & rain, a heavy hail shower & a couple of late pull-outs for Mangrove, this was a good game of football & a great result for the men in yellow.

The team seemed to gel & played some of the best football of the campaign to date, with everybody playing their part in an entertaining performance against a competent EA side. Perhaps there was also a little luck on Mangrove’s side for the first time, though having a third goal disallowed for a non-existent foul made the latter stages more nervy than they needed to be. In truth though, Mangrove were the better side, had more possession, more chances & possibly should have won by more.

They fell behind after 15 minutes when the bustling centre forward robbed Girdlestone & found himself one on one with Sharkey. The defence were at a loss as to why there was no award of a free kick, but the team answered in the best way, creating a flowing move straight from the restart & finding Jon Dean unmarked 15 yards out. His shot was going wide, but was turned in by Cave, lurking at the back post – 1 -1 without an EA player touching the ball.

Mangrove stepped up a gear, Patemen & Dean controlling the centre & Sean Williams’ intelligent prompting creating space for the rejuvenated Cousins up the right. Thrussell also began to settle in his left-sided role & with Everitt full of running, the Hertford side began to run the show. Some thrusting runs from Zipfell & Andrews created more chances whilst the back four stood firm against EA who were always dangerous on the break.

After 26 minutes, Cousins rolled the ball inside to Andrews who astonishingly (if you’ve ever seen him in training) found the target from 25 yards with enough power to cause the keeper to spill the ball into the net. Another drive from the big man a few minutes later was saved & a towering Everitt header grazed the bar from a perfect Thrussell corner.

At half time, the manager must have been thrilled with the performance & his side went looking for more goals. After 53 minutes, another Thrussell corner was flapped away by the keeper & drilled into the top corner by Girdlestone only for the referee to make his only mistake in the game by disallowing it for a foul on the keeper.

Late subs Barnaby & Picker looked at home in the side & Mangrove ran out comfortable winners in the end, though they have Sharkey to thank for a flying save from a 25 yard effort on the hour, the keeper back to his best between the sticks.

“I have to be honest that I was a bit worried at half time that we’d played almost too well & I hoped that the boys would be able to keep it up for the 90 minutes. I shouldn’t have worried though, I thought they were magnificent today, everybody played well. Ross had possibly his best game for us & Paddy was outstanding in the middle, but the whole team can hold their heads up today” said Gordon Picker afterwards. “ At the moment, the only definite absentees next week will be the two Toms, so that gives someone else the chance to stake a claim at centre half & I should be able to add Neil, Gary, Calum & Matt back into the mix, with one or two others hopefully OK after minor ailments this week!”

Three wins on the spin, but no time for complacency for Mangrove, with a tough visit to Broxbourne & a chance to avenge an early-season defeat coming up.