Actonians 2 - 3 Haringey Borough

Away from league action this afternoon it was a visit to Coles Park for the first team where they faced Step 5 club Haringey Borough in the Capital Senior cup semi-final. Haringey spent a season in Step 4 in 2017-2018 when Actonians beat them 13-0 at home and 10-0 away with currently injured midfielder Ale Barreca helping herself to no less that 9 goals across the 2 matches. However recent results show that Haringey are a much better prospect these days included knocking Spurs WSL Academy out in the last round of this competition.

Actonians had the best possible start to today’s tie. With just 18 seconds on the clock Tori was sent through on goal and placed her shot underneath the diving goalkeeper into the bottom corner. After gaining an early lead Actonians remained on the front foot briefly. Meila having a free kick palmed away in the 6th minute and Amber having her shot saved a minute later. Haringey had their first effort on target in the 9th minute which required an excellent save from Elisa but on 11 minutes Haringey equalised. They launched a long ball forward after Actonians lost possession in their penalty area and the away side found themselves exposed at the back with two unmarked Haringey players, one of whom levelled the score. Both sides were working hard to take the lead. Meila hit the post on 17 minutes and Shakes had a header cleared off the line with 20 gone. Then another great save from Elisa in the 23rd minute. Amber had a great chance to put Actonians back in front on 27 minutes but the keeper saved her shot from close range superbly. Haringey started to gain more possession and were creating a few openings without the end product. The closest Actonians came before the break was in the 44th minute when Meila was stretching to head Amber’s cross goalbound but could not get a strong enough contact. Half time 1-1.

Both teams went close in the first minute of the second half. Actonians effort being an Amber shot going over the bar. In the 53rd minute Meila’s header hit the top of the crossbar but apart from a few openings here and there Haringey were starting to dictate the game more possession wise while Actonians struggled to put more that 2 passes together a lot of the time. However it was difficult to keep the game flowing with a number of late challenges and shirt pulling from the Haringey players. Not helped by the referee missing a lot of these and seemingly having left his cards at home. A forced substitution on the hour mark when Keishia replaced Olivia after she picked up an injury. Another sub 3 minutes later with Dom replacing Amber and then on 64 minutes Meila had another shot on target which the keeper originally parried before reacting quickly to collect. On 72 minutes a Haringey player looked to have controlled the ball with her hand before smashing home a screamer. The goal was given. Then 2 minutes after that Keishia lost possession inside her own penalty area and the Haringey number 7, who was probably the best player on the pitch today, knocked the ball over Elisa to give herself a tap-in and Haringey a 3-1 advantage. Ikraam replaced Naomi in the 76th minute and Amina replaced Shakes in the 83rd minute with Jas having a shot go wide just before that. Amina was in the action straightaway with some good work on the right and Ikraam fired the resulting loose ball home to get a goal back. On 90 minutes Actonians were still looking for that equaliser but despite seven substitutions and lots of time wasting from Haringey the referee decide to only add on 3 minutes and no further chances were created. Full time Haringey Borough 3-2 Actonians.

A bad-tempered affair, particularly in the second half, helped not least by the referee’s failure to take control of the game and some very poor decisions. Ultimately though it is Haringey and not Actonians who have a cup final to look forward to and the away side just could not seem to get going again today for any lengthy period of time after Haringey equalised their early goal. Back to league action for Actonians next Sunday and a tough away game against Worthing.

Report and photo by Neil Hayward