HARROW BOROUGH (Earlsmead)

FA CUP 3RD QUALIFYING ROUND, HARROW BOROUGH 2-1 WALTHAM ABBEY, ATTENDANCE: 182

It was another early start this Saturday as I joined the great and good of the hopping fraternity for the the first game of the Bedfordshire Hop. It was a 10:30 kick off at the Shefford Sports Centre as Shefford Town & Campton beat Pavenham by 4 goals to 2. 

After a quick slurp in the Shefford Brewery Tap, my accomplice and I made our way, slowly, down the A41 to Harrow. I have every sympathy for those that have to drive in London.

Earlsmead has been Harrow Borough's home since 1934, a year after the club was formed.

The seated main stand at Earlsmead was opened in 1995 and
replaced the old Champniss Stand, which was demolished after 57 years

Harrow Borough have had an indifferent start to their Isthmian League campaign and find themselves just above the drop zone after 15 games. Their opponents today, Waltham Abbey, are mid table in the division below. Maybe the FA Cup is a welcome distraction.

After a visit to the Harrow Borough social club, where the friendly guy on the door was most welcoming, we entered the ground and headed for the food bar. I was absolutely shocked that Harrow had pies for sale, as that is a rare thing at grounds around these parts. They must have known we were coming today and specially imported them in from the north.

Whilst I was still staring in wonderment of a bit of pastry, gravy and offal, I missed the first goal of game!

If the Waltham Abbey manager gave the standard "keep it tight for the first twenty" team talk then I'm, afraid his side didn't heed the warning as they fell behind after 18....seconds!

Marc Charles-Smith, the Harrow skipper, was played through to slot home.  Michael Bryan could have doubled the homesters lead after 4 minutes but his header was well saved.

The game settled down after that and the rest of the first half was a pretty even affair.

The second half was a lot more feisty and a far more interesting watch. The catalyst was a couple of crunching tackles and a penalty to Waltham Abbey, which Tom Bruno (47) duly converted (pictured left).

The Waltham Abbey no2, Stef Swzarski, was lucky to only receive  a yellow card for grabbing Harrow's Steve Butterworth by the throat. Indirectly this led to the winning goal as Butterworth out paced Swazarski, who couldn't dive in to tackle him, to fire home the winning goal (62).

Waltham put Harrow under late pressure but couldn't force an equaliser. Harrow will now travel to Basingstoke Town in the next round.