Posted: 9th ~ March ~ 2009

Baker's Leave a Sour Taste for Hammond

Date : March 7th 2009
Fixture : League Game - Away
Result : Harold Wood 0 - 2 May & Bakers

A second and third place 6 pointer took Wood to May and Baker Club. Again Wood were without players through injury or work commitments. A glowing Duckworth, fresh from his tan off victory over Cook, came straight back in for the working Munday and yet another new partnership of Holliday and Miller formed the Wood frontline.
May and Baker started the better and dominated possession but some no nonsense defending from the Wood backline kept the score level until around the half hour mark. An excellent diagonal run from Bakers forward went unchallenged for an eternity and when the ball was eventually released back across the face any one of four players could have opened the scoring for the hosts.
Wood struggled to play anywhere near the level they have become accustomed to and on a bobbly pitch in blustery conditions, unforced errors began to creep into a usually comfortable footballing side. Credit to the Baker players, all over the pitch they chased down lost causes and gave Wood no time or space. This was in total contrast to Woods lacklustre approach. Woods solitary chance of the half fell to Sawyer unmarked and 6 yards out but his header sailed wide of the upright after latching onto Smy's delivery.
One down at the break an often placid Hammond tore into his players, questioning their desire and commitment and demanded a lot more from the restart.
The second half saw more of the same from both sides, Wood finding it hard to string more than two passes together and May and Baker dominating the midfield contest but unable to unlock the Wood defence, due to some solid defending and a bit of luck on one particular goaline scramble. On the hour an odd throw out from Wordsell to Sewell looked to favour the Baker forward, Sewell found Gibson who was instantly closed down and a clever step over saw a Baker midfielder run through and round Wordsell to make it two. Hammond went 4-3-3 to try to inject some attack, into his team. Munday, fresh from work, replaced Duckworth. Cook came on for Sawyer and veteran Robinson for Holliday.
For ten minutes Baker were on the back foot with Munday making the difference in midfield and Robinson going close from a set piece but this was short lived as Baker finished the stronger and took a well deserved three points.
Hammond raged "that may be the wake up call we need, only my captain can emerge from that with his head held high. We have a tough run in and we will need to be consistent if we have any chance of retaining our title" when asked for his man of the match Hammonds only response was "Man of the match !!! Yeah, their No.10" as his mood blackened. Even his usual 6 pint warm down and the prospect of a chinese banquet couldn't lift his mood.
Disappointing from an inform Wood side who probably won't be as ineffective again this season but maybe it will be a case of lessons learned from the unlikely source of this education.

Team Lineup : Wordsell, Smy, Gibson, Sewell, Fletcher, Sawyer (Cook 65), Stamp, Duckworth (Munday 60), Huckstepp, Holliday (Robinson 75) Miller

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