Cambridge City Show Their Class as Harborough Town Fight Until The End
25th August 2018
You could sense the magic of the FA Cup in the air as Harborough Town welcomed Step 4 Cambridge City to grace the opening of the brand-new Harborough Town Community Football Ground. The sun was shining on the new 4G surface, and a larger than average crowd created a true FA Cup clash atmosphere. Harborough Town were looking to bounce back from their poor league run of form, where they are yet to pick up a single point; whilst City, also yet to pick up a point in the Southern League, looked for their first win of the season.
Mohammad Zakaria Soumah started brightly, as he regularly does, bringing strength and intensity to Harborough’s strike force. It took him no longer than 3 minutes to make an impact, as City keeper Liam Gooch fumbled a neat through ball and lost out to Soumah; he made himself some space on the edge of the box, but he dragged his left-footed effort wide of the post. After this scare, City turned up the class. A powerful run by Ryan Towner, followed by some dazzling interplay between Ebby Nelson-Addy and Josh Oyinson allowed Oyinson room to shoot, but his effort found its way no further than a Harborough body. Soumah continued to show his worth, he outmuscled Jack Wilkinson and his pass found Pernell Taylor-Jacob who curled in a cross but to no avail. City returned the favour, seeing Ben Robinson loose on an authoritative run down the right drifting past multiple Harborough players, but his low driven cross couldn’t clear Glen Giles. The next few moments saw Giles strongly tested: Robinson played puppeteer again as he threaded through Isaac Maynard in space but his shot was calmly handled by Giles. Then, Oyinson found himself with equal time but, again, his low effort was straight into the clutches of Giles.Robinson proved a true attacking threat again as he latched onto a lobbed ball, his driven ball across the face of the Harborough goal finds Ryan Sharman, but from 6-yards out his first-time effort flew over the bar. Another ball in over the top creates panic at the Harborough backline, and Giles comes out looking to clear, but instead simply clashes into Oyinson letting the ball roll into the path of Nelson-Addy; but Ben Williams tracks back well to get in the way of his effort and clear the danger. The final 10 minutes of the half were very quiet, with neither team being able to create a clear-cut chance and defence controlling the game. The 0-0 scoreline at the half was fair, both teams had played very good football with City controlling much of the possession – but a strong and determined Harborough backline meant City could not break through.
After the restart Harborough looked like a team on a mission, with Jordan Lever, who replaced Soumah at the half, firing a snapshot wide of the post just 2 minutes in. They followed this up with a dominant few minutes of football, playing the ball around with intent and pace. However, even this could not stop the game from slowing up, taking until the 60 minute mark for the game to excite the few-hundred fans who had turned up for this enticing fixture. Robinson, who displayed his quality all day, whipped in an exciting ball and all it needed was a City head, but nobody could get a touch on it. Lever then took a note from Robinson’s book and curled in an inviting ball at the other end, but Gooch claimed before a Harborough player came close.Some wasted possession by Harborough in the midfield marked the beginning of the end. Nathan Olukand found himself free down the right, he cut inside fired into the path of a defiant Jamie Mastropierro, who slid in for an important block. Harborough failed to truly clear the ball and moments later Olukand drives a ball across the box and James Hall meets it first, turning the ball in past Glen Giles. At 1-0 to City, Harborough heads dropped, and It didn’t take long for City to double their lead. Ben Williams brought down a City player on the edge of the box, and Nelson-Addy stepped up. He got the ball up and over the wall, and a favourable bounce in front of Giles sees it bounce over his low dive into the bottom-right corner; Giles will feel he should have saved it as there was very little pace on the free kick. But, the second goal lit a fire in the bellies of the Harborough players’ and they spent the final 10 minutes piling on the pressure to City’s goal. In the 81st minute, Harry Henbury dropped a perfectly-weighted ball for Callum Steer to run onto, he cut inside and looked to curl one in; Gooch got low to palm it away but only into the path of the onrushing Aaron Preston who passed the ball into an open net. At 2-1, Harborough thought the FA Cup magic was on their side, but it was not to be. An open final few minutes saw Harborough have all the possession but make little of it as City dropped 10-men behind the ball.
The opening of the new Harborough Town Community Ground wasn’t the fresh start the team were hoping for. They put on a strong performance against a team a Step higher and were by no means dominated. Like last week, though, they struggled to create clear-cut chances in the final third, and when available, they were unable to take them. But, City showed moments of class, and it was these moments that proved the deciding factor in this fixture. Nevertheless, it was a great day for the club: the new facilities looked and played brilliantly, The Bees had a strong backing of support and one hopes the future of the Harborough Town Community Ground sees consistent turnouts throughout the rest of the season. For now, the FA Cup dream is over. But the League dream is still there to be taken, with matters resuming next week in a local derby as Desborough are next to test the new Harborough Town Community Ground.
-Match report by Edward Clement
