Hendon 1, Poole Town 3

Saturday’s game between Hendon and Poole Town saw the away team take all three points in their charge for the Southern Premier Division Title. Despite a hard fought defensive effort from the home team, in the end it was comfortable victory for the visitors.

This game saw a return of Lee Chappell after missing the FA Cup victory against Deeping Rangers, on the other hand Poole opted to bench their top scorer Harry Baker in favour of a less conventional centre forward in Ollie Dennet.

Right from the kick off Poole dominated possession and committed men forward, giving little opportunity for Hendon to counter. The home team’s defence remained tight and compact meaning that despite all their domination of the ball, Poole really failed to create many clear cut chances. An early slip up from the Hendon back line nearly lead to the first goal. A misjudgement of a long ball by the defender put Dennet through, and he punted the shot wide of the far post.

Poole, playing with great confidence, continued with their intricate passing. Clear chances were rare, but they got some fortune on the right hand side where winger Jez Bedford and full-back Joshua Leslie-Smith were linking up excellently. However, it was the opposite wing where the first goal came from. A cross in from Luke Holmes to the edge of the box which Josh Carmichael blasted against Chris Grace’s bar only for Dennet to dive in and head the rebound home. 1-0.

The balance of the match didn’t really change after the goal however Hendon did seem to provide more of a threat on the counter as Francis Amartey and Kameron English swapped wings, putting English on the right where he had played so well against Deeping. In the 30th minute came Hendon’s first real chance. A freekick from Chappell was headed wide by Hamblin. Poole, hungry for the second. A 37th minute effort from Will Spetch forced a save from Grace. In the 41st minute Leslie-Smith sent the ball across the face of goal, but no-one was there to finish.

In the second half Hendon came out more attacking and began to look more of a threat. Amartey broke through on goal and took the ball round keeper Luke Cairney but waited too long to shoot. By the time he did, Cairney had recovered and managed to tip the ball over his own bar. This early Hendon.

In the 53rd minute a Poole free kick finds Marvin Brookes in the box. Completely unchallenged by any Hendon defenders, he slotted the ball into Grace’s bottom left. There were appeals for obstruction from the Hendon goalkeeper but the goal stood 2-0. Four minutes later, Bedford receives the ball on the right wing and blasts his effort wide.

Then in the 64th minute came the third goal, and what a goal it was. Holmes cut in from the left wing and passed the ball to Dennett. The Striker flicked it to Bedford who sent the shot sailing into the top corner to mark what, for me, was a Man of the Match performance. 3-0. From then on the game settled down. Poole, comfortable with the lead didn’t pursue another and Hendon struggled to retain possession enough to pose any real threat of getting back into the game. However, a 76th minute penalty, gave Hendon a chance for a consolation which Amartey smashed into the bottom right. 3-1. The goal proved to be little hinderance to Poole who saw the rest of the game out comfortably. To make matters worse for Hendon, Lee Chappell picked up his second yellow card for a challenge on substitute Flavio Tavares.

In the end, although a one sided game in terms of the possession, Poole were unable to create many chances due to a solid defensive display from the home team. However, Hendon’s poor transition from defence to attack meant that they never posed a serious threat to the visitors.